La Garganta

La Garganta municipality
La Garganta - town view
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Extremadura
Province :	Cáceres
Comarca :	Valle del Ambroz
Coordinates	40 ° 20 ′  N , 5 ° 49 ′  W Coordinates: 40 ° 20 ′  N , 5 ° 49 ′  W
Height :	1124  msnm
Area :	24.08 km²
Residents :	378 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	15.7 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	10759
Municipality number  ( INE ):	10078
administration
Website :	La Garganta

La Garganta is a town in western Spain and a municipality ( municipio ) with 378 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the province of Cáceres in the extreme north of the autonomous region of Extremadura near the border with the neighboring region of Castile-León .

location

The place La Garganta is in a valley of the Sierra de Béjar , a part of the Iberian Scheidegebirge , surrounded by wooded mountains , at an altitude of approx. 1125 m above sea level. d. M. The distance to the neighboring town of Hervás is about 14 km (driving distance) in a southerly direction; the city of Béjar in the neighboring province of Castile and León is only about 24 km to the northeast. The climate is cool to temperate due to the altitude; Rain (approx. 605 mm / year) actually only falls in the winter half-year.

Population development

year	1842	1900	1950	2000	2016
Residents	k. A.	1,303	1,492	601	428

The significant population decline since the 1950s is mainly due to the mechanization of agriculture and the associated loss of jobs.

economy

The place probably did not exist in the early and high Middle Ages, but shepherds found enough food for their animals here. The later settlers lived largely as a self-sufficient source of income from the small fields and, above all, from raising cattle. Today, fruit and vegetable growing and forestry play the most important roles in the economic life of the municipality; In addition, hiking and wellness tourism plays an important role as a source of income.

history

The Celts, Romans, Visigoths and Moors left no traces on the high-lying municipal area and so the history of the place only begins with the gradual settlement ( repoblación ) of the area by migrant shepherds ( transhumants ) since the 13th century . Nearby are the remains of the wall of a slightly higher and long-abandoned place called La Redondilla - it is believed that the residents gradually abandoned the place since the 15th century and moved to the one located in a valley and therefore sheltered from the wind and for The cereal cultivation (mostly barley ) moved to La Garganta more suitable. La Garganta belonged to the 15th century, the basic rule ( señorio ) ruling over much of western Spain Family Zuñiga who for their services in 1485 by the Catholic Monarchs with the title " Duke of Béjar was rewarded". During the great administrative and territorial reform of 1833, the place was assigned to the province of Cáceres in the Extremadura region .

Attractions

Wolf trap ( corral de lobos )

• The older houses in the place are all made of rubble stones ; however, most are plastered.
• The church Nuestra Señora de la Asunción , built from rubble stones, is an inconspicuous single-nave building from the 15th / 16th centuries. Century with a small bell gable ( espadaña ), which however underwent frequent changes.
• On the outskirts there is a still preserved ice cellar ( pozo de nieve ), in which ice and snow were stored in early spring, with the coldness of which the food stored here could be preserved for a long time.
• A museum (Museo del Lobo) is dedicated to the history of the Spanish wolves.

Surroundings

• Above the village there are several semicircular wall districts made of quarry stone - these are wolf traps into which the animals were driven with the help of dogs. They were then killed with stones and sticks.

Web links

Commons : La Garganta  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• La Garganta, sights - photos + short information (spanish)
• La Garganta, Church - Photos

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. ↑ La Garganta - Map with altitude information
3. ↑ La Garganta - climate tables
4. ^ La Garganta - population development
5. ↑ La Garganta - Church
6. ↑ La Garganta - Wolf Museum