Puertollano

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Puertollano municipality
coat of arms Map of Spain
Puertollano coat of arms
Puertollano (Spain)
Finland road sign 311 (1994-2020) .svg
Basic data
Autonomous Community : Castile-La Mancha
Province : Ciudad Real
Comarca : Puertollano
Coordinates 38 ° 41 ′  N , 4 ° 7 ′  W Coordinates: 38 ° 41 ′  N , 4 ° 7 ′  W
Height : 543  msnm
Area : 226.74 km²
Residents : 47,035 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density : 207.44 inhabitants / km²
Postal code : 13500
Municipality number  ( INE ): 13071
administration
Mayor : Joaquín Carlos Hermoso Murillo ( PSOE )
Website : www.puertollano.es
Location of the municipality
Provmap-Puerto.png

Puertollano is a city in the province of Ciudad Real in the autonomous region of Castile-La Mancha in Spain . It has 47,035 inhabitants (called puertollanenses or puertollaneros ) ( INE , as of January 1, 2019).

economy

In the past, the economy was based on agriculture , livestock , textile industry, and coal mining . Today Puertollano is the city with the highest industrial density in Castile-La Mancha . It is the location of several plants in the chemical industry ( Repsol , Fertiberia ) and related branches of industry. In addition, there are two large power plants in Puertollano , a conventional coal-fired power plant operated by E.ON subsidiary VIESGO and a coal-based combined cycle power plant with integrated solid gasification ( IGCC ) operated by the operator ELCOGAS (affiliate of the Spanish energy group Endesa ), the largest plant of its kind in the world. As far as mining is concerned, only one mine is still in operation, in which the ENCASUR company mines hard coal in open-cast mining . In a newly created industrial area on the periphery, the construction of which was supported by the city and the Autonomous Community, a large number of manufacturing companies have settled, in particular manufacturing technical systems for the use of solar energy .

history

prehistory

In Puertollano there are prehistoric archaeological remains that prove the presence of representatives of the genus Homo as early as the time of Homo heidelbergensis / Homo antecessor . It is a continuous settlement activity during the Middle Stone Age as well as remains of cave paintings by Homo sapiens . This settlement activity was concentrated in the Ojailén river plain and its artistic evidence is shown in the schematic paintings that are spread across the area. Likewise in limestone remains in the hill of Azucena . Recently, a cluster of Bronze Age weapons and Neolithic structures ( The Fortress of El Villar ) and Bronze Age settlements such as the famous San Sebastian Hill were discovered.

Antiquity

Remains of the Celtic Oretani and the Romans can be found on the banks of the Ojailén from ancient times .

middle Ages

Monument to the miner, the work of José Noja .

The Visigothic necropolis of Loma de las Sepulturas ( burial mound ) still exists from the Middle Ages . This also applies to the important Andalusian country castles on the hills that surround the river valley. During this period there was the border area between the Muslim and Christian kingdoms. There was a lot of fighting and the area was very depopulated. This relative depopulation changed with the victory of Christian troops over the Muslims in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. Since then, everything has indicated that the area was calm and began to be settled. During this time, Puertollano was also founded.

The birth of Puertollano is closely linked to the process of repopulation of Castile in the 13th century and is mentioned for the first time in the Concordia of 1245 under the name "Puertoplano". Since the establishment of the military orders , the existence of the city, which at that time had the rank of village ( aldea ), has been consistent .

In the 14th century, the population of Puertollano devoted themselves to agriculture and livestock . This heyday was in 1348 with the occurrence of the Black Death , which struck all of Europe , but was particularly fatal for Puertollano.

Partial view of the city center of Puertollano

The disease extremely decimated the population: only 13 residents survived. They asked for the protection of the Virgin Mary and sacrificed three cows . This is the origin of the Feast of the Holy Vow , which has been celebrated in Puertollano since then.

Modern times

Puertollano achieved the rank of a town ( villa ) in modern times (privilege granted by Philip II ). Cloth production began in the 16th century and developed well over the 17th and 18th centuries. This thriving fabric-making industry cooperates with an economy that is primarily oriented towards agriculture and livestock .

At the end of the 19th century, Puertollano had several potters who supplied the whole area with ceramics : small jugs for the water of the sour well, vow pots, to name just the most typical. The potters disappeared in the early 20th century.

The promenade of Puertollano, in the background the Church of the Blessed Virgin , patron saint of the city
The combined cycle power plant from ELCOGAS
Partial view of the petrochemical complex

The real economic birth of Puertollano began in the last quarter of the 19th century. In 1873 coal mining began, which brought a large wave of immigrants and a spectacular increase in population.

20th century

The real growth of Puertollano was recorded between 1900 and 1960, due to economic development and continued immigration: first the miners, later the workers for the petrochemical complex. In 1920 20,083 inhabitants were counted.

In 1925 Alfons XIII awarded Puertollano the title of a large city ( ciudad ).

In these sixty years of rapid industrial growth, two events are important: In 1912, the Peñarroya mining and metallurgy company was founded for the distillation of oil shale . And in 1942 the people's company Calvo Sotelo was founded for the INI with the aim of extracting petroleum from the slate mentioned, the descendants of which form today's petrochemical industrial complex Repsol YPF . The coal mine was closed in the early 1970s.

The opening of the AVE high-speed line , Madrid - Seville in 1992, opened up new prospects for the city's economy.

Interesting locations

  • Sour well
  • Bathhouse (old bathhouse in which the citizens' office is housed).
  • Church of the Resurrection (16th century).
  • Church of the Virgin of Grace (15th century).
  • Hermitage of Solitude (14th century).
  • Mining museum.
  • city ​​Museum
    The Sauerbrunnen, January 2006
  • City Hall.
  • Pozo Norte Park
  • Monument to the miner, the work of José Noja .
  • Old slate still Calatrava and rubble dump El Terry .
  • Dehesa Boyal de Puertollano Nature Education Center .
  • Nature and hiking trails.
  • Alcudia valley

Festivals

  • May fair. In the first week of May on the fairgrounds with the stalls as an attraction. 1995 was the 100th anniversary.
  • September festival in honor of the patron saint, the Virgin of Grace , whose festival is celebrated on September 8th. With a procession of the faithful who accompanies the Virgin as she walks through the streets.
  • The Holy Vow, Puertollano also celebrates one of the oldest gastronomic festivals in Europe with a tradition of more than 650 years. Popular meal of veal with potatoes, with which the population commemorates the rescue from the plague in 1348. Each year this vow is renewed on the eighth day after the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the following Thursday, when a roast beef is served to the vower.
  • Competition for the appearance and ability of Andalusian horses in the last week of September. More than 150 pedigree horses come together. You can also attend first class horse riding demonstrations.
  • Day of the Chorizo . On January 23rd, it is traditional to eat chorizo ​​in the countryside. This ritual is part of the pig slaughter .
  • Day of the Hornazo . On the Sunday after the resurrection, almost all residents move to the countryside to eat hornazo (the majority in the pine forest near the ENEL-VIESGO power station). The hornazo is a delicious sweet pastry cake with boiled eggs that they all adore.
  • Carnival. Very rooted in Puertollano. The carnival mobilizes a large number of residents for costume competitions, chariot processions, carnival clubs and noise.

Town twinning

Sons and daughters

Web links

Commons : Puertollano  - collection of images, videos and audio files

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. ↑ Schwartz-González:

    «Lejos de ser una necesidad, la política de autarquía suponía un despilfarro tanto mayor cuanto mayores eran las escaseces. En un país en el que reinaba el hambre, escaseaba el vestido y faltaba el cobijo, se decidió invertir grandes sumas para que pasado mañana no faltase la gasolina obtenida de las pizarras bituminosas »