Calatrava la Vieja

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Calatrava La Vieja is now an abandoned medieval fortress town in the municipality of Carrión de Calatrava in the province of Ciudad Real in the autonomous region of Castile-La Mancha in Spain .

Calatrava la Vieja

location

Calatrava is about 100 km south of Toledo or 180 km south of Madrid on the south bank of the Río Guadiana at an altitude of about 600  m ; the city of Ciudad Real is a good 17 km (driving distance) in a south-westerly direction.

history

Islamic period

The Calatrava, founded in the 8th century under the rule of the Spanish Umayyads , is mentioned in a document as early as 785. The name is derived from the Arabic name Qalʿat Rabāh (قلعة رباح; German "fortress of Rabah"). It still bears the name of the Arab knight to whom this place was given as a fief in the eighth century.

During the High Middle Ages , Calatrava was the most important city of the Arab Emirates of Córdoba in the valley of the Río Guadiana, the largest city between Córdoba and Toledo and an important Islamic outpost against Christian Spain. Calatrava experienced its heyday after the destruction by the Toledan rebels after the reconstruction, which was carried out by the Umayyad prince al-Hakam (brother of the emir of Cordoba Muhammad I ) in 853. Calatrava developed into the capital of a large region in the following three hundred years until 1147. However, with the fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba , the area became a bone of contention between the Taifa kingdoms of Seville , Cordoba, and Toledo.

After the conquest of Toledo by King Alfonso VI. of Léon and Castile in 1085, Calatrava became through the victory of the Almoravids under their Sultan Yusuf ibn Tashfin over the army of Alfonso VI. in the Battle of Zallaqa near Badajoz on October 23, 1086, the most exposed Muslim outpost towards the Christian areas in the center and north of the Iberian Peninsula and therefore played a not insignificant role in the ongoing hostilities with the Christian Kingdom of Castile.

Establishment of the Order of Calatrava

King Alfonso VII of León and Castile (r. 1126–1157) conquered the city of Calatrava in 1147 and now used it as an important strategic outpost on the border with the Islamic sphere of influence. To secure this position, he transferred the city and fortress Calatrava to the Knights Templar in 1150 . It was one of the first Templars possessions in Spain, but because of their intensive involvement in Palestine and massive military pressure from their Islamic neighbors, they were unable to take responsibility for this strategic fortress.

King Sancho III. of Castile and León therefore called a meeting of its greats and offered the city and fortress to anyone who was ready to take on their defense. The only one willing to defend this strategic Christian outpost was a monk: Raimundo Serrat , the abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Fitero . King Sancho was disappointed, but forced to honor his offer, and with a deed of donation dated January 1, 1158, gave him the town and fortress of Calatrava. Inadvertently, King Sancho laid the foundation stone for the creation of the first great Spanish knightly order, the Order of Calatrava . This was founded by Raimundo Serrat as the military arm of the Cistercian order by armed the lay brothers. Raimundo managed to recruit a significant number of fighters in a short time and thereby hold the fortress against the Saracens. He became the first grand master of the order, but retired in old age to an estate near Ciruelos near Toledo, where he died. He was venerated as holy by the monks of the Cistercian order.

After the defeat of King Alfonso VIII of Castile on July 19, 1195 in the Battle of Alarcos , Calatrava was lost to the Almohads and could not be recaptured until 1212. Because of the threat to Spain from the powerful Almohad Empire, Pope Innocent III. with King Alfonso VIII of Castile a crusade , which on July 16, 1212 with a decisive victory of the Christians against the army of Muhammad an-Nasir (1199-1213), the fourth caliph of the Almohads, in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa ended. Also from Germany and Austria - after participating in the Albigensian Crusade - troops from southern France set out for Spain to take part in this crusade. Among them was Leopold VI. the glorious Duke of Austria and Styria, whose troops of Austrian and Styrian knights arrived too late in Las Navas de Tolosa to be able to intervene in the battle. This decisive victory enabled the Castile border to be pushed far south.

Decline

Due to the shifting of the borders, however, a change in the seat of the Grand Master of the Order of Calatrava was necessary, which was therefore relocated to the old Castillo de Dueñas, about 60 kilometers further south. This also resulted in a transfer of the name, since the new center of the order was now called " Calatrava la Nueva ", whereby Calatrava itself became Calatrava la Vieja (Old Calatrava).

After the Grand Master's move, the order in Calatrava la Vieja continued to be represented by a commander , which, however, was relocated to the neighboring Carrion de Calatrava at the beginning of the 15th century. As a result, the city was practically deserted by the beginning of the 16th century. What remained was an impressive landscape of ruins, which extends over five hectares and contains remains of the medina and the fortress ( Alcázar ) - which covers over one hectare; it has a total of 44 towers and is surrounded by a moat from the Arab era that was connected to the Guadiana River.

Today Calatrava la Vieja is therefore an important archaeological site for the Islamic culture in Spain, but where remains from the time of the Templars and the Order of Calatrava have been preserved. The facility is part of the archaeological park in the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha.

literature

  • Ruibal , Amador: Calatrava la Vieja. Estudio de una fortaleza medieval . Instituto de Estudios Manchegos. Ciudad Real, 1984. ISBN 84-00-05811-9 .
  • Retuerce , Manuel & Lozano , Isidoro: "Calatrava la Vieja: Primeros resultados arqueológicos". Actas del I Congreso de Arqueología Medieval Española . (Huesca, April 1985). Tomo III, pp. 57-75. Zaragoza, 1986. ISBN 84-505-4759-8 .
  • Retuerce Velasco , Manuel: «Calatrava la Vieja. Diez años de investigación arqueológica ». Arqueología en Ciudad Real , pp. 211-241. Patrimonio Histórico-Arqueología. Castilla-La Mancha, 8th Toledo, 1994. ISBN 84-7788-309-2 .
  • Retuerce Velasco , Manuel: "Documentación arqueológica de una ciudad almohade de la Meseta: Calatrava". Alarcos, 1195. Actas del congreso internacional conmemorativo del VIII Centenario de la batalla de Alarcos . (Ciudad Real, 1995), pp. 211-222. Ciudad Real, 1996. ISBN 84-89492-34-4 .
  • Retuerce , Manuel & Hervás , Miguel Ángel: «Calatrava la Vieja. Fortificación de una ciudad islámica de la Meseta ». Castillos de España , 113, pp. 23-43. Madrid, 1999.
  • Retuerce , Manuel & Hervás , Miguel Ángel: «Calatrava. Capital de La Mancha ». La Aventura de la Historia . 21 (julio de 2000), pp. 84-91. Madrid, 2000.
  • Retuerce , Manuel & Hervás , Miguel Ángel: "Calatrava la Vieja, capital islámica de la región". El Patrimonio arquelógico de Ciudad Real. Métodos de trabajo y actuaciones más recientes. Luis de Benítez de Lugo Enrich (coord.), Pp. 297-322. Valdepeñas, 2000. ISBN 84-398-0004-5 .
  • Retuerce , Manuel & Hervás , Miguel Ángel: "Calatrava la Vieja: de medina a encomienda". Mil anos de fortificações na Península Ibérica e no Magreb (500-1500). Actas do Simposio Internacional sobre castelos . (Palmela, 2002), pp. 311-317. Lisboa, 2002. ISBN 972-772-308-X .
  • Retuerce , Manuel & Hervás , Miguel Ángel: «Excavaciones arqueológicas en Calatrava la Vieja. Planteamientos y principales resultados ». Investigaciones arqueológicas en Castilla-La Mancha. 1996-2002. Patrimonio Histórico-Arqueología. Castilla-La Mancha, 18, pp. 381-393. Toledo, 2004. ISBN 84-7788-332-7 .

Web links

Commons : Calatrava la Vieja  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georg Scheibelreiter: The Babenberg imperial princes and sovereigns. Böhlau Verlag, 2010, page 287.

Coordinates: 39 ° 4 ′  N , 3 ° 50 ′  W