Calatañazor

Calatañazor municipality
	Calatañazor - the townscape
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and Leon
Province :	Soria
Comarca :	Tierras del Burgo
Coordinates	41 ° 42 ′ N , 2 ° 49 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 42 ′ N , 2 ° 49 ′ W
Height :	1059 msnm
Area :	64.82 km²
Residents :	51 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	0.79 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	42193
Municipality number ( INE ):	42046
administration
Website :	Calatañazor

Calatañazor is a place and a small municipality ( municipio ) with only 51 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the northern Spanish province of Soria in the autonomous region of Castile-León . The place has been recognized as a cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) in the Conjunto histórico-artístico category .

location

The place Calatañazor is located above the river valley of the Río Milanos at an altitude of about 1060 m . The next larger town, El Burgo de Osma , is about 33 km (driving distance) in a south-westerly direction. The provincial capital Soria is about 36 km (driving distance) in an easterly direction. Also worth seeing is the listed town of Ucero (32 km to the west). The climate in Calatañazor is harsh in winter, but temperate to mild in summer; Rain (approx. 520 mm / year) falls over the year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2001	2017
Residents	514	511	306	75	51

As a result of increasing drought as well as the mechanization of agriculture and the resulting lower demand for labor, the number of inhabitants has declined sharply since the beginning of the 20th century. The community also includes the two hamlets (pedanías) Abioncillo de Calatañazor and Aldehuela de Calatañazor , each with only about 10 inhabitants.

economy

The small mountain village was and is largely shaped by agriculture. In earlier times the place served as a handicraft and market center for the - meanwhile long abandoned - smaller farmhouses and hamlets in the area. Tourism (hiking and holiday apartments) has played an important role as a source of income for the community since the middle of the 20th century.

history

Researchers suspect that a settlement called Voluce of the Celtic tribe of the Arevacians was in the immediate vicinity. The Romans are also said to have been in the area - but there are not many archaeological traces. Some of the graves in the flanks of the castle hill may come from the Visigothic period. The current name Calatañazor ( Arabic : Qal`at an-Nusur, قلعة النسور) comes from Islamic times and means something like "Eagle Castle"; it recalls the time of Islamic rule over large parts of the Iberian Peninsula , which in the northern part finally came to an end with the defeat of the general Almansor in the summer of 1002 in the - historically unproven - battle of Calatañazor . In the Middle Ages, the city belonged to the manor ( señorio ) of the Padilla family , which was probably also in the 14th / 15th centuries. The castle was built in the 19th century. From the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century, the place was under the control of the Dukes of Medinaceli .

Attractions

Keep ( torre de homenaje )

Only ruins remain of the medieval castle ( Castillo de Calatañazor ) built from largely unworked stones . Its most striking part is the keep ( torre de homenaje ) with its elevated entrance portal, which can only be reached by ladders. In the middle of the outer wall there is still an oddly shaped Gothic window. The castle was surrounded by a wall ring, some parts of which are still preserved.

West facade of the church

Ermita de Soledad

The houses of the medieval-looking place surrounded by remains of the former city fortifications are grouped on a rocky plateau behind the castle. In the seemingly deserted alleys, there are still a number of half-timbered houses , some of them standing on supports, with fillings made of clay mixed with small stones, which were later sometimes replaced with bricks.
The parish church of Nuestra Señora del Castillo is an outwardly unadorned and overall defensive-looking building from the 13th century, which is essentially constructed from rubble stones . The archivolts of the portal are framed by a rectangular frame ( alfiz ) , which is rarely found in this far north of Spain and which is ultimately borrowed from Islamic architecture . Above there are three blind arcades separated from one another by small columns with capitals , the middle of which ends at the top with a small multi-pass arch , and a small round window ( oculus ) . The one-nave church with ribbed vaults houses a Romanesque baptismal font , a late Gothic canvas image of Cristo del Amparo, venerated as a medicinal product, in a baroque altarpiece and a large altarpiece with several scenes from the event of salvation.

In the middle of the village stands a court column ( rollo or picota ) from the 16th or 17th century on a stepped base . Above a hexagonal shaft there is a plate extending in all four directions and a multi-tiered crown with a closure in the form of a ball . A wrought iron cross forms the top.

Surroundings

The single-aisled Romanesque hermit church Ermita de Soledad is only about 150 m north of the village, of which the apse , built from precisely hewn stones, and a portal on the north side have been preserved. The rest of the structure was later - not very lovingly - renewed from unprocessed rubble stones. The two arcades in the outer wall of the apse seem strange - these are probably walled up doors that were opened for processional purposes in earlier times and then walled up again. The consoles below the eaves show abstract decorative motifs as well as animal heads etc .; a harp- playing musician ( King David ?) is among them.
Of another hermit church (Ermita San Juan Bautista) there is only an archivolt portal, half overgrown by plants, made of precisely hewn stones.
The juniper forests (Sabinar de Calatañazor) about 2 km northwest of the village are under nature protection. Many of the gnarled trees of the Spanish juniper (Juniperus thurifera) are several hundred years old.