El Cardoso de la Sierra

El Cardoso de la Sierra municipality
El Cardoso de la Sierra - the townscape
coat of arms	Map of Spain
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Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile-La Mancha
Province :	Guadalajara
Coordinates	41 ° 6 ′  N , 3 ° 28 ′  W Coordinates: 41 ° 6 ′  N , 3 ° 28 ′  W
Height :	1275  msnm
Area :	186.87 km²
Residents :	60 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	0.32 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	28190
Municipality number  ( INE ):	19067
administration
Website :	www.elcardosodelasierra.com

El Cardoso de la Sierra is a place and a municipality ( municipio ) with 60 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the province of Guadalajara in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha . In addition to Cardoso , the large community includes six, partially abandoned hamlets: Bocígano, Cabida, Colmenar, Corralejo, Peñalba and La Vihuela .

Location and traffic

The mountain town of El Cardoso de la Sierra is located at an altitude of approx. 1275 meters above sea level. d. M. on the upper reaches of the Río Jarama in the far west of the province of Guadalajara. The provincial capital Guadalajara is about 90 kilometers (driving distance) southeast; the Spanish capital Madrid is a good 100 kilometers to the south.

Population development

year	1960	1970	1981	1991	2001
Residents	278	199	114	126	80

In the first half of the 20th century the population was between 250 and 350 people. As a result of the mechanization of agriculture and the associated loss of jobs, the population is falling sharply.

economy

The remote mountain community lived for centuries from an agrarian self-sufficiency economy, which in addition to the cultivation of barley and wheat also included livestock (sheep, goats, pigs). Since the 1960s, the rental of holiday apartments ( casas rurales ) has been added as a source of income.

history

The region was in the 1st millennium BC. Inhabited by the Celtiberian tribes of the Arevacians and Lusons ; however, no significant archaeological finds have yet been made. The Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and Berbers also left no traces. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the area was recaptured ( reconquista ) and repopulated ( repoblación ) by the Christians . In the 11th century, El Cardoso, El Vado , which was sunk in a reservoir, and the hamlet of Colmenar de la Sierra - which today has only about ten inhabitants - belonged to Villa y Tierra de Sepúlveda . Since the year 1278 the three villages formed an independent municipality - around 100 years later (1373) to come under the manorial rule ( señorio ) of the important Mendoza family , from which they were later able to break away.

Attractions

Cardoso

Colmenar Church

• The houses in the village are all made of quarry stone , but some were plastered later.
• The simple Romanesque village church ( Iglesia de Santiago Apóstol ) , also built from rubble stones and probably dating back to the 11th century, is elevated in the west by a two-part bell gable ( espadaña ). Neither the semicircular apse nor the west facade show any structuring or decorative elements. A door to the cemetery opens at the rear of the church.
• A hermit chapel ( Ermita de San Roque ) dates from the 19th century.
• A claw stand ( potro de herrar ) was reconstructed in 2012.

Colmenar

• The church of the village shows a masonry made of bricks and rubble stones.

Web links

Commons : El Cardoso de la Sierra  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• El Cardoso de la Sierra, history - 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).