Espinosa de Henares

Espinosa de Henares municipality
Espinosa de Henares - town view
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile-La Mancha
Province :	Guadalajara
Comarca :	La Alcarria
Coordinates	40 ° 54 ′  N , 3 ° 4 ′  W Coordinates: 40 ° 54 ′  N , 3 ° 4 ′  W
Height :	745  msnm
Area :	39.42 km²
Residents :	628 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	15.93 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	19292
Municipality number  ( INE ):	19113
administration
Website :	Espinosa de Henares

Espinosa de Henares is a central Spanish town and municipality ( municipio ) with 628 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the province of Guadalajara in the autonomous region of Castile-La Mancha . The municipality belongs to the sparsely populated region of the Serranía Celtibérica .

Location and climate

Espinosa de Henares is about 745  m high and is located on the Henares River in the northwest of the Alcarria , a landscape in the north of the southern part of the Iberian Plateau ( meseta ) . The provincial capital Guadalajara is approx. 38 km (driving distance) to the south; the lovely town of Brihuega is about 40 km south-east. The climate in winter is temperate, while in summer it is warm to hot; the rather low amounts of precipitation (approx. 420 mm / year) fall - with the exception of the almost rainless summer months - distributed over the whole year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2019
Residents	355	461	600	576	628

Despite the mechanization of agriculture , the abandonment of small farms and the resulting loss of jobs in the countryside, the population of the municipality has not declined since the middle of the 20th century. This is also due to the incorporation of two villages (aldeas) and hamlets (pedanías) .

economy

The people of earlier centuries lived mainly as self-sufficiency from agriculture and livestock farming , whose durable products (cheese, sausage, animal skins and wool) could be exchanged or sold at traveling traders. Craftsmen and service providers were also based in the village.

history

Along the Roman road running from Emerita Augusta ( Mérida ) to Caesaraugusta ( Saragossa ) through the valley of the Río Henares, both the foundations of Roman country estates ( villae rusticae ) and small finds were discovered in the municipality . A valuable eagle brooch found here comes from the Visigothic period and is now in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional de España in Madrid . The Moors left no usable traces. In the second half of the 11th century they were taken over by King Alfonso VI's army . driven out of the region by León ( reconquista ) ; then the phase of new or resettlement ( repoblación ) began by Christians from many parts of the Iberian Peninsula . A written mention of the place name from the early Middle Ages is not known and so it is assumed that it originated in the 11th or 12th century. In the 14th century, the area belonged to Iñigo López de Orozco, whose daughter Teresa, who was entitled to inherit, married Pedro González de Mendoza († 1385) from the up-and-coming Mendoza house , in whose hands the town of Espinoza remained until the early 19th century .

Attractions

Espinosa de Henares - Church

• The five-arched bridge over the Río Henares possibly goes back to an ancient predecessor; in its present form it dates from the 15th century.
• A building with a balcony known as the (Palacio) stands on the site of a former castle (castillo) .
• The single nave Iglesia de la Asunción was built in the 16th century; the bell gable (espadaña) could still come from this time. The chancel and nave are spanned by wooden ceilings. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a baroque altarpiece and an organ were added. Both were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939).
• The small Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is on the northern outskirts. Its domed, curved roof is striking.
• The Poor Clares - Convent was founded in the 1899th

Web links

Commons : Espinosa de Henares  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Espinosa de Henares, tourism site - 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. ↑ Espinosa de Henares - Climate tables
3. ↑ Espinosa de Henares - Population development
4. ↑ Espinosa de Henares - History
5. ↑ Espinosa de Henares - Palacio