Alesón

Alesón municipality
Alesón - View of town with Iglesia de San Martín
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	La Rioja
Province :	La Rioja
Comarca :	Comarca de Nájera
Coordinates	42 ° 24 ′  N , 2 ° 41 ′  W Coordinates: 42 ° 24 ′  N , 2 ° 41 ′  W
Height :	575  msnm
Area :	6.49 km²
Residents :	99 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	15.25 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	26315
Municipality number  ( INE ):	26010
administration
Website :	Alesón

Alesón is a place and a municipality (municipio) with 99 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the northwest of the northern Spanish autonomous region of La Rioja . The municipality is part of the Rioja Alta wine-growing region .

Location and climate

The wine town of Alesón is only about 1 km south of the Way of St. James ( Camino Francés ) about 24 km (driving distance) southwest of the provincial capital Logroño at an altitude of about 575  m ; the historically and culturally significant town of Nájera is only 4 km to the north-west. The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 560 mm / year) falls mainly in the winter half-year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2001	2018
Residents	244	191	253	143	102

The phylloxera crisis in viticulture, the increasing mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the resulting unemployment have led to a significant population decline since the middle of the 20th century ( rural exodus ).

economy

In earlier centuries, the inhabitants of the place lived largely as self-sufficiency, directly or indirectly (as craftsmen and small businesses) from the agriculture in the area . As early as pre-Roman times, a nearby trade route connected the Ebro Valley with the Iberian Meseta . Viticulture , which has been practiced since Roman times , gained in importance, especially in the 19th century, when French winemakers settled in the Ebro Valley to produce wine based on the French model.

history

Alesón, church - altarpiece (around 1540)

No traces of prehistoric, Celtiberian , Roman , Visigoth or even Moorish traces were made in the municipality; In 997, the place name , which may have come from Arabic , is mentioned for the first time. Sancho I of Navarre had conquered the upper Ebro Valley as early as 920 ; he even managed to establish a small Christian empire in the Iregua Valley to the south . At the beginning of the 11th century, the area under Sancho III. a heyday of Navarre ; he divided his kingdom in will between his three sons, which resulted in ongoing conflicts between the kingdoms of Navarre , Castile and Aragon . In 1076 the area was occupied by Alfonso VI. conquered by Castile .

Until the great territorial reform of 1833, Alesón belonged to the old Castilian province of Soria ; then the small town was slammed into the newly created province of Logroño . In 1980 the name of the Province of Logroño was changed to La Rioja ; it also received the status of an autonomous region .

Attractions

The Iglesia de San Martín is a building from the 16th century, which was probably built on the site of a previous medieval church. The bell tower (campanario) was added in the 18th century. The outer walls of the single-nave structure, which has a transept, are stabilized by buttresses . The eye-catcher inside the church is the plateresque altarpiece (retablo) from around 1540, decorated with numerous figures .

Web links

Commons : Alesón  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Alesón - Photos + Quick Facts (Spanish)
• Alesón, tourism etc. - photos + information (Spanish)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).
2. ↑ Alesón - Population Development
3. ↑ Alesón - History
4. ↑ Alesón - Church