Pájara

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Parish of Pájara
coat of arms Map of the Canary Islands
Coat of arms of Pájara
Pájara (Canary Islands)
Finland road sign 311 (1994-2020) .svg
Basic data
Autonomous Community : Canary Islands
Province : Las Palmas
Island: Fuerteventura
Coordinates 28 ° 21 ′  N , 14 ° 6 ′  W Coordinates: 28 ° 21 ′  N , 14 ° 6 ′  W
Height : 196  msnm
Area : 383.52 km²
Residents : 21,093 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density : 55 inhabitants / km²
Postal code : E – 35625 (Morro Jable)
E – 35626 (Morro Jable)
E – 35627 (Costa Calma)
E – 35628 (Pájara)
Municipality number  ( INE ): 35015
administration
Mayor : Rafael Perdomo Betancor ( PSOE ) (as of 2009)
Address of the municipal administration: Plaza de Nuestra Señora Regla, 1
35628 - Pájara
Website : www.pajara.es
Location of the municipality
FU Pajara.png

Pájara is the southernmost of the six municipalities on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura . The administrative center of the municipality of the same name is quite wealthy, which results from the income of the large tourist centers from Costa Calma to Morro Jable .

Places of the community

place population
Morro Jable 7,841
Costa Calma 5,531
Solana Matorral 2,044
La Lajita 1,692
Pájara 1,096
Esquinzo 0.806
La Pared 0.609
Piedras Caidas 0.327
Toto 0.279
Ajuy 0.091
Cardon 0.130
Mal Nombre 0.088
Punta Jandía 0.031
Chilegua uninhabited

history

The name Pájara comes from the old Barranco de Pájara . There are said to have been many partridges there, because the word Pájara means partridge in the Andalusian dialect .

The name of the place is first mentioned in 1612 in a document about Betancuria . After the Conquista ended , the village began to grow. The 17th century benefited from agriculture, livestock, fishing and trading through the ports of La Pared and Peña Horadada . Although famines often triggered a wave of emigration after particularly dry times , Pájara became the seat of one of the five infantry troops on the island. In 1681, the inhabitants called on the island government to expand the seed land, as the population had increased so that the land was no longer sufficient.

The first nave of the Nuestra Señora de Regla was built in the same year. The bishop Juan Ruiz Simón (1706-1712) came to the island and criticized the lack of church presence in remote villages, of which he informed King Felipe V on his return to Spain . As a result, the auxiliary parish Nuestra Señora de Regla was founded in Pájara in 1708 .

The population, which grew rapidly in the 18th century, was given a pósito in 1776 , a storage room in which supplies for periods of drought were kept. During this time people lived mainly from cattle breeding and the production of wheat, barley, potatoes and brine . Donkeys and camels traditionally drove the water paddles ( norias ) and grain mills ( tahonas ). At the end of the 18th century, the quarrying of limestone made quicklime an important export item.

In the 19th century, the production of carmine or cochineal dye was added. This coveted red dye comes from the larvae of the scale insect bred on the opuntia .

region

The municipality of Pájara has a total of 150 kilometers of coastline. The municipality of Betancuria joins to the north and the municipality of Tuineje to the east . Pájara is divided by the La Pared isthmus into the Jandía peninsula in the south and the northern part of the municipality.

Pájara

Place-name sign Pájara.jpg
Church of Our Lady of Regla in Pajara

The affluent town of Pájara lies like an oasis in the valley between 600 meter high mountains, of which the Fenduca is the highest at 609 meters above sea level. The Nuestra Señora de Regla church, completed in 1733, is located in the village . The sculpture of the patron saint Virgen de Regla is also venerated in Cuba as the patron saint of the cities of Havana and Regla , a provincial city of the same name. To the left of the church is the Centro Cultural de Pájara with the community library . Opposite the town hall (Ayuntamiento) presents itself in a modern appearance. The plaza is adorned with a donkey-powered water paddle ( noria ) from the 19th century. Such norias were used decades ago to water the fields. Today, however, agriculture has lost much of its importance and the former irrigation systems are in ruins. Today there is even a communal freshwater swimming pool in Pájara, a real luxury on this arid island.

In the town center you will also find the Casa del Artesano , where you can see Canarian handicrafts.

At the end of the village in the direction of Puerto del Rosario , the self-confidence of the place is also expressed in the statue of a farmer milking goats. Fewer people than goats live on Fuerteventura . But this also means a danger to the environment, because the land has been completely devoured by the goats. The goat cheese is on the island of queso majorero because the inhabitants of Fuerteventura is Majoreros call.

Ajuy

Ajuy , also known as Puerto de la Peña , was the most important port on the island during the time of the conqueror Jean de Béthencourt in the 15th century. Today it is a small fishing village. The place lost its importance to Puerto de Cabras , today's capital of the island Puerto del Rosario .

Toto

The Ermita de San Antonio de Padua is in Toto . This church is dedicated to Saint Anthony of Padua , was built in the second half of the 18th century and completed in 1795. It consists of a ship but has two portals. Inside there is a statue of the patron saint of the place, Saint Anthony .

economy

Beach below the Urbanización Esquinzo

Today 90 percent of the population work in the tourism sector. The challenge is to keep things moderate so that the island's ecosystem is not endangered. Further hotel buildings are not planned. There is a quote: The Pájara community no longer needs a bed! . In order not to be dependent only on this branch of the economy, the current government has set itself the task of promoting and rebuilding arable and livestock farming . The goal is a certain degree of self-sufficiency.

Web links

Commons : Pájara  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikivoyage: Pájara  - travel guide

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. Population of the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica , 2011