Calcena

Calcena municipality
	Calcena - town view
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Aragon
Province :	Zaragoza
Comarca :	Aranda (Spain)
Coordinates	41 ° 39 ′ N , 1 ° 43 ′ W Coordinates: 41 ° 39 ′ N , 1 ° 43 ′ W
Height :	835 msnm
Area :	64.74 km²
Residents :	72 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	1.11 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	50268
Municipality number ( INE ):	50069
administration
Website :	Calcena

Calcena is a northern Spanish town and municipality ( municipio ) with only 72 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the northwest of the province of Saragossa in the west of the autonomous region of Aragon . The place belongs to the poorly populated Serranía Celtibérica .

Location and climate

The place Calcena is located on the Río Isuela on the southern edge of the Sierra de Moncayo, which is a maximum of 2315 m high, about 112 km (driving distance) west of the provincial capital Saragossa near the border with the old Castilian province of Soria at an altitude of about 820 to 850 m . The climate is temperate to warm; Rain (approx. 495 mm / year) falls throughout the year, with the exception of the dry summer months.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2017
Residents	1.313	776	764	90	75

As early as the second half of the 19th century, the population of the municipality decreased significantly due to the gradual closure of the Valdeplata silver mine . The mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the associated loss of jobs have led to a renewed decline in 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. The nearby silver mine of Valdeplata was already exploited in ancient times ; this was used again in the years from 1857 to 1914. Today orchards and viticulture play important roles in the economic life of the place; In addition, holiday apartments (casas rurales) are rented out.

history

Traces of Celtiberian , Roman and Visigoth settlement have not yet been discovered. In the 8th century Arab-Moorish armies advanced into the upper Ebro Valley; the local castle is sometimes associated with the Moors . Around 1120 the area was recaptured by Alfonso I of Aragon ( reconquista ) . Later it was disputed between the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile ; this dispute only ended with the marriage of the Catholic kings Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragón in 1469. From 1382 until the abolition of all manors (señorios) in the 19th century ( desamortization ) , the place and its surrounding area belonged the diocese of Tarazona . In 1785 Calcena received city rights.

Attractions

Calcena - Iglesia

A castle (castillo) probably already existed in Moorish times; it was expanded by the Christians in the 13th and 14th centuries, but probably destroyed in the conflict with Castile.

The Nuestra Señora de los Reyes church is an imposing three-aisled hall church that was built around the middle of the 16th century in place of a Romanesque predecessor. While the church, with the exception of the portal and the corner stones, was built from unhewn but plastered rubble stones, the three upper floors of the bell tower (campanar) are made of bricks in Mudejar style . The church interior is spanned by a late Gothic star vault; In the crossing dome , which is elevated by a lantern, there are stucco ribs without a load-bearing function in the late Moorish manner. A crypt was discovered under the choir . The equipment includes an oil painting on the subject of the beheading of John the Baptist , which is attributed to the Aragonese painter Jerónimo Cósida (around 1510–1592).