Almenar de Soria

Almenar de Soria municipality
Almenar de Soria - castle ( castillo )
coat of arms	Map of Spain
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Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and León
Province :	Soria
Comarca :	Campo de Gómara
Coordinates	41 ° 41 ′  N , 2 ° 12 ′  W Coordinates: 41 ° 41 ′  N , 2 ° 12 ′  W
Height :	1019  msnm
Area :	105.99 km²
Residents :	228 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	2.15 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	42130
Municipality number  ( INE ):	42022
administration
Website :	Almenar de Soria

Almenar de Soria is a place and a municipality ( municipio ) with a total of 228 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the east of the city, consisting of the capital and several hamlets (Cardejón, Castejón del Campo, Esteras de Lubia, Jaray and Peroniel del Campo) Province of Soria in the Autonomous Community of Castile and León . The Catholic parish belongs to the Diocese of Osma-Soria .

Location and climate

The place Almenar de Soria is located in the plateau interspersed with rocks and hills in the east of the province of Soria at an altitude of approx. 1010 to 1050  m . The distance to the northwestern provincial capital Soria is approx. 26 km (driving distance). The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 535 mm / year) falls over the year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2017
Residents	480	606	648	387	234

The increasing mechanization of agriculture as well as the abandonment of small farms and the resulting loss of jobs would have led to an even more significant decline in the population in the second half of the 20th century if several villages in the area had not been incorporated into the 1960s.

economy

For centuries the community lived exclusively from growing grain ( barley and wheat ), which was mainly operated for self-sufficiency ; livestock farming ( sheep , goats , chickens ) also took place to a small extent. Today agriculture still plays the most important role, but there has also been a small amount of income from tourism (rental of holiday homes).

history

After the Arab-Moorish conquest , large areas in the north of the Iberian Peninsula were depopulated . In the 10th century began under the Castilian Count Gonzalo Téllez in the second half of the 11th century under Alfonso VI. Complete reconquest ( reconquista ) of Old Castile , which culminated in the capture of the city of Toledo, about 250 kilometers to the southwest (1085). Almenar was probably repopulated or repopulated ( repoblación ) by settlers from the north during this period ; the first mention of the place name comes from the 13th century.

Attractions

• A castle (castillo) probably stood on the site as early as the Moorish times, but its current appearance largely comes from the renovation work of the 15th century when the place and its castle were owned by the Counts of Gómara. It is a square complex with a surrounding kennel , each with four round towers in the corners; In the center of the complex there is a largely identically designed residential wing. The castle is privately owned and is only accessible via a stone bridge.

Ermita de la Virgen de la Llana

• The single-nave parish church (Iglesia de San Pedro Apostol) was built around the same time with the exception of the buttresses and the corner stones from rubble stones . It has a transept with two side altars . As is customary in the region, the church, which can only be entered via the portal on the south side, houses a Romanesque baptismal font (pila bautismal) , which probably comes from a previous building that had been demolished, and a remarkable baroque altarpiece (retablo) .
• The Ermita de la Virgen de la Llana , located a little outside the town at the end of an avenue, is a large-scale building with a transept from the second half of the 18th century, which probably also replaced a previous building. In the center of a Baroque altarpiece, the church houses a late Romanesque statue of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus sitting on her left knee, which was once highly venerated in the region ( sedes sapientiae ) .

Web links

Commons : Almenar de Soria  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Almenar de Soria, sights - photos + information (Spanish)
• Almenar de Soria, sights - photos + information (Spanish)
• Almenar de Soria, castle - photo
• Almenar de Soria, sights - 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. ↑ Almenar - climate tables
3. ↑ Almenar - population development
4. ↑ Almenar - Castillo