Arenas de San Pedro

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Municipality of Arenas de San Pedro
Arenas de San Pedro - View of the town with Palacio de la Mosquera
Arenas de San Pedro - View of the town with Palacio de la Mosquera
coat of arms Map of Spain
Coat of arms of Arenas de San Pedro
Arenas de San Pedro (Spain)
Finland road sign 311 (1994-2020) .svg
Basic data
Autonomous Community : Castile LeonCastile and León Castile and León
Province : Ávila
Comarca : Valle del Tiétar
Coordinates 40 ° 13 ′  N , 5 ° 5 ′  W Coordinates: 40 ° 13 ′  N , 5 ° 5 ′  W
Height : 510  msnm
Area : 194.62 km²
Residents : 6,377 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density : 32.77 inhabitants / km²
Postal code : 05400
Municipality number  ( INE ): 05014
administration
Website : Arenas de San Pedro

Arenas de San Pedro is a small town and municipality in central Spain with 6,377 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) ( municipio ) in the province of Ávila in the autonomous region of Castile-León . The old town center was classified as a cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) in the Conjunto histórico-artístico category.

Location and climate

Arenas de San Pedro is located on the south side of the Sierra de Gredos on the southern edge of the province of Avila; the highest peak in the municipality is La Mira ( 2343  m ). The distance to Ávila is almost 85 km (driving distance) in a north-easterly direction; It is a good 150 km to Salamanca in a northwesterly direction. The climate is temperate to warm; the rather sparse rain (approx. 375 mm / year) falls over the year with the exception of the dry summer months.

Population development

year 1857 1900 1950 2000 2017
Residents 2,739 3,375 6,518 6,464 6,556

The mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the resulting loss of jobs in the countryside have led to significant urban growth since the middle of the 19th century. The municipality also includes the three hamlets (pedanías) Ramacastañas , La Parra and Hontanares , each with around 100 to 350 inhabitants, as well as several individual farms (fincas) .

economy

Agriculture, especially cattle breeding, traditionally plays the largest role in the economic life of the mountain community, which in earlier times was also a regional center for handicrafts and trade for the hamlets and farmhouses in the area, because ore was long in the valley of the Río Tiétar reduced. Income from tourism in the form of renting out holiday homes (casas rurales) has increased over the last few decades.

Place name and coat of arms

The origin of the name Arenas dates from the time the city was founded in the Middle Ages. Originally the city was called Arenas de las Ferrerías de Ávila , due to its proximity to the old iron ore mine La Tablada , which gave the Comarca de las Ferrerías de Ávila its name. The addition of de San Pedro was made after the canonization (1669) of Peter of Alcantara , who lived in the city for a while in the 16th century until his death in 1562.

history

Court column (rollo or picota)

Even though a bridge was built here in Roman times, no settlement finds from Celtic , Roman , Visigothic or Islamic times are known and so the origins of the city can only be traced back to the Middle Ages, as a group of settlers as part of the "resettlement" repoblación chose the current location. The place is first mentioned in the late Middle Ages as the property of Don Rodrigo Alonso Pimentel , Count of Benavente . It then became the property of Don Álvaro de Luna . However, only the medieval toll bridge over the Río Arenal remains from this period . The place received city rights in 1393 under the reign of Henry III. of Castile . After that, the city was the main place of a manorial rule (señorio) , which in addition to Arenas de San Pedro also comprised several villages and individual farms.

At the end of the 18th century, the city once again experienced a brief heyday thanks to the infante Luis de Borbón y Farnesio , the brother of King Charles III. who received artists of all kinds in his palace - including Francisco de Goya , Luigi Boccherini and Ventura Rodríguez . The city was looted twice in the 19th century, e.g. B. during the Spanish War of Independence and the First Carlist War . This is possibly the reason why the coat of arms of the municipality shows a castle in flames with the motto Siempre incendiada y siempre fell ("Always burned and always faithful").

Attractions

Castle (Castillo de la Triste Condesa)
Aquelcabos Bridge
  • The Castillo de la Triste Condesa ("Castle of the Sad Countess") is on the western outskirts. The square castle with round towers at the corners and a rectangular structure is uplifting keep (Torre del homenaje) was built in the late 14th century.
  • The church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción was built in the 14th century in Gothic style by Ruy López Dávalos , the first landlord (señor) of Arenas .
  • A court column or pillory (rollo de justicia or picota) dates from the baroque period. The conical tip and two of the former four arms of the capital zone have broken off.
  • The palace of the Infante Luis de Borbón ( Palacio de la Mosquera ) , a classicist building, the architecture of which is clearly based on the model of the Escorial , which is 200 years older , was built in the years after 1776 by the Infante Don Luis, a brother of Charles III. built. After his love marriage with a commoner, he had withdrawn here and turned to culture. a. Goya and the musician and composer Boccherini are guests. Ventura Rodríguez is named as the planning and supervising architect .
  • The three-arched Aquelcabos Bridge is also known as the Roman Bridge (puente romano) because it is said to have been built in Roman times. You can see it today rather from the Middle Ages, although restoration work took place again and again in later times.
Santuario de San Pedro de Alcántara
Surroundings
  • The Franciscan monastery of San Pedro de Alcántara is located about three kilometers north of the city . It was built in the 16th century on the site of the abandoned hermitage of San Andrés del Monte and was rebuilt in the 18th century under the direction of the architects Ventura Rodríguez and Francisco Sabatini . A museum displays sacred works of art from the 17th and 18th centuries.
  • In the hamlets of Ramacastañas and Hontanares, which are 5.5 and approx. 14 km to the south-east, respectively , there are old village churches from the 16th century with a bell gable (espadaña) and possibly a south porch (portico) .
  • The church in the village of La Parra , about 4 km to the northeast, dates from 1898.

Personalities

Holiday

The commemorations of the city patron, Our Lady on the Pillar and St. Peter of Alcantara , are celebrated on September 8th and October 19th.

Web links

Commons : Arenas de San Pedro  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

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. ↑ Arenas de San Pedro - climate tables
  3. ^ Arenas de San Pedro - population development
  4. ↑ Arenas de San Pedro - History
  5. ↑ Arenas de San Pedro - Castillo
  6. ↑ Arenas de San Pedro - Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción
  7. ^ Arenas de San Pedro - Real Palacio de Don Luis de Borbon y Farnesio
  8. ↑ Arenas de San Pedro - Roman Bridge
  9. ↑ Arenas de San Pedro - Santuario de San Pedro de Alcántara