Berdejo

Berdejo municipality
Berdejo - town view
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Help on coat of arms
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Aragon
Province :	Zaragoza
Comarca :	Comunidad de Calatayud
Coordinates	41 ° 34 ′  N , 1 ° 57 ′  W Coordinates: 41 ° 34 ′  N , 1 ° 57 ′  W
Height :	995  msnm
Area :	19.39 km²
Residents :	47 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	2.42 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	50316
Municipality number  ( INE ):	50047
administration
Website :	Berdejo

Berdejo is a town in northern Spain and a municipality ( municipio ) with 47 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the far west of the province of Zaragoza and the autonomous region of Aragon . The place belongs to the poorly populated Serranía Celtibérica ; regionally it is sometimes referred to as the birthplace of St. Aemilianus viewed by Cogolla .

Location and climate

The town of Berdejo, located near the border with the old Castilian province of Soria , is located on a nearly 1000  m high mountain flank above the Río Manubles , a tributary of the Río Jalón ; it is located about 30 km (as the crow flies) southwest of the Sierra de Moncayo, which is a maximum of 2315  m high . The place is a good 125 km (driving distance) in a westerly direction from the provincial capital Zaragoza ; the historically and culturally significant city of Calatayud is approx. 45 km to the south-east. The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 515 mm / year) falls throughout the year, with the exception of the rather dry summer months.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2001	2017
Residents	362	339	275	66	51

The mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the associated loss of jobs led to a significant decline in the population ( rural exodus ) since the middle of the 20th century .

economy

For centuries, the residents of the village lived directly or indirectly as self-sufficiency from agriculture, which also included livestock farming. The processing of sheep's wool was an important economic factor in the 16th and 17th centuries. Today fruit trees in particular play an important role in the economic life of the place; In addition, holiday apartments (casas rurales) are rented out.

history

Although the place belonged to the settlement area of ​​the Celtiberian Lusones , so far neither Celtiberian nor Roman or Visigoth traces have been discovered. In the 8th century, Arab-Moorish armies penetrated into the upper Ebro Valley, but even from this time there are no archaeologically usable traces for Berdejo; in the 9th or 10th century, however, a first castle (castillo) may have been built . Around 1120 the area was recaptured by Alfonso I of Aragon ( reconquista ) . The area was long disputed between the kingdoms of Aragón and Castile ( Guerra de los Dos Pedros ) ; this dispute only ended with the marriage of the Catholic Kings Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragón in 1469.

Berdejo - stone bridge, church and castle ruins

Attractions

• From the castle (castillo) , which already existed in the 12th century and was destroyed in the war against Castile in the 14th century, remains of the former 15 m high keep (torre del homenaje) and the castle walls are still standing . In the courtyard there is a covered cistern (aljibe)
• The one-nave church of San Millán , built around 1200, is dedicated to St. Aemilianus of Cogolla . From the Roman original building only parts of are apse received. The rest of the church building has been redesigned repeatedly; Finally, the two transept chapels with their lantern pieces were added.
• In the valley, a stone bridge (Puente del Molino) from the 17th or 18th century crosses the Río Manubles.

Web links

Commons : Berdejo  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Berdejo - photos + brief 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. ↑ Berdejo - climate tables
3. ^ Berdejo - population development
4. ↑ Berdejo - History
5. ↑ Berdejo - castle ruins
6. ↑ Berdejo - castle ruins
7. ↑ Berdejo Church