Tordesillas
| Tordesillas municipality | |||
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 Tordesillas - town view
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| coat of arms | Map of Spain | ||
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| Basic data | |||
| Autonomous Community : | Castile and Leon | ||
| Province : | Valladolid | ||
| Comarca : | Tierra del Vino | ||
| Coordinates | 41 ° 30 ′ N , 5 ° 0 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 702 msnm | ||
| Area : | 141.68 km² | ||
| Residents : | 8,750 (Jan 1, 2019) | ||
| Population density : | 61.76 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Postal code : | 47100 | ||
| Municipality number ( INE ): | 47165 | ||
| administration | |||
| Website : | Tordesillas | ||
Tordesillas is a small town in northern Spain and a municipality ( municipio ) with 8,750 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) in the province of Valladolid in the autonomous region of Castile-León . The historically and culturally significant city is recognized as a conjunto histórico-artístico .
location
The small town of Tordesillas is located on the north bank of the Duero in the Castilian plateau at an altitude of about 700 m . The provincial capital Valladolid is a good 30 km (driving distance) to the northeast; the historically significant market town of Medina del Campo is just under 30 km to the south. The climate in winter is quite cold, but in summer it is warm to hot; the sparse rainfall (approx. 385 mm / year) falls throughout the year.
Population development
| year | 1857 | 1900 | 1950 | 2000 | 2019 |
| Residents | 3,956 | 3,590 | 5,029 | 8,045 | 8,750 |
The significant increase in population in the 20th century is mainly due to immigration from the rural areas in the area ( rural exodus ).
economy
For centuries, the city's residents have been doing agriculture, handicrafts, retail and all kinds of services. Since the 1960s, domestic and international tourism has also played an increasingly important role in the city's economic life.
history
In pre-Roman times the region belonged to the settlement area of the Celtic tribe of the Vaccaeans ; Later came the Romans and Visigoths , and in the 8th century the area was overrun by the Moors - however, all four cultures left little archaeological traces in the area. Already in the 9th century Asturian-Leonese army conquered the areas north of the Duero back ( reconquista ) . At the end of the 10th century, the Moorish military leader Almansor temporarily wiped out the Christian successes, but in the 11th century the Kingdom of León extended its territory again to the Duero border and pursued a policy of repopulation ( repoblación ) . After previous attempts, León finally united with the Kingdom of Castile in 1230 , but disputes occurred again and again in the period that followed. The place experienced its heyday in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period.
Treaty of Tordesillas
In 1494 - two years after Columbus' official discovery of the New World - the city became the setting for the Treaty of Tordesillas between the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal . A year earlier, Pope Alexander VI. divided the New World between the two countries along a demarcation line that ran west of the Cape Verde Islands in a north-south direction. In favor of Portugal, this demarcation was moved further west in the Treaty of Tordesillas.
Captivity of Joan the Mad
The Spanish Queen Joan the Mad was imprisoned here by her father Ferdinand II after the death of her husband Philip the Fair (1506) in the Convento de Santa Clara , a former palace that had been converted into a monastery . Allegedly she had lost her mind over the untimely death of her husband and kept his body in her rooms to convince herself again and again that he was still asleep. Her son, King Karl I , later the German Emperor Karl V, did not end her captivity until her death (1555). Although she was temporarily co-regent after the death of her mother Isabella I (1504), after her death she was buried first in the monastery of Santa Clara and later in the Capilla Real next to the cathedral of Granada together with her parents and not in the Panteón de los Reyes transferred to the Escorial .
Battle of Tordesillas
In September 1520 members of the Comuneros uprising conquered the city, freed Johanna from her prison and recognized her as the rightful ruler of Spain; she even attended a meeting of the Cortes . In the meantime, her son Charles V organized an aristocratic army, and so on December 5th of the same year there was a battle, known in Spain, between the civil army and the troops of the royalists outside the city gates. The latter remained victorious, but the uprising flared up again and again in many parts of Spain in the following years.
Attractions
- In the center of the city is the main square (Plaza Mayor), surrounded by three-story houses . There are cafes and shops on the ground floor; the upper floors are used for residential and office purposes. One of the buildings serves as the town hall (ayuntamiento) .
- The Poor Clare Monastery (Monasterio de Santa Clara) is located in a former Mudejar-style palace of Alfonso XI. of Castile (r. 1312-1350) housed, which this gave in October 1340 after winning the battle at the Salado against the Moors . The buildings show a mixture of Moorish ( horseshoe arches , overlapping arches, multi-pass arches , artesonado ceilings) and Christian elements ( bell gables , segment arches, etc.). Already in 1363 his son Peter I (r. 1350-1369) transferred the building to the Order of the Poor Clares .
- The Iglesia de Santa María comes from the 16./17. Century; however, it is built in a Gothic style . The apse and bell tower (campanario) are made of stone, whereas the nave (nave) is made of bricks .
- The church of San Antolin, which can be seen clearly from the banks of the Duero, was built in the 16th and 17th centuries. Century; since 1969 it has housed a museum for sacred art. Its tower is built from bricks in the Mudejar style. The imposing altarpiece dates from 1655.
- In the immediate vicinity are the two buildings of the Casas del Tratado , in which the negotiations on the Treaty of Tordesillas took place at the end of the 15th century . The larger of the two buildings was not erected in its current form until the 17th century.
- The Church of San Francisco is home to a museum of lace making (Museo del Encaje) .
- The age of the ten-arch Duero Bridge remains unclear. Possibly built in the 13th or 14th century, it had to be renewed repeatedly after the river flooded.
Bullfight
Tordesillas is the venue for the unique annual Toro de la Vega tournament . On the second Tuesday after the festival in honor of the patron saint of Tordesillas Virgen de la Peña (September 8th) a bull is put to death by riders with lance stabs in the meadows (vegas) outside the village. The tournament, which dates back to a decree of Peter I on the occasion of the celebration of the birth of his daughter Isabel in 1355, regularly attracts thousands of onlookers from home and abroad.
Every year there are numerous statements from supporters and opponents of this medieval spectacle in all media. However, the number of opponents of this gruesome spectacle is increasing every year: In 2012, 71,000 negative signatures were collected by the Partido Animalista , a Spanish animal welfare organization. In 2015 there were already 120,000 signatures. Supporters of various left-wing groups also demonstrated on Puerta del Sol Square in Madrid. The mayor of Tordesillas has received several death threats because of his positive attitude towards bullfighting and has to be regularly protected from demonstrators by the police.
In May 2016, the regional government of Castile and León issued a decree prohibiting the death of the bull during the tournament and in public. Spanish animal rights activists and top politicians celebrated this decision, while the mayor and the opposition in the town hall expressed their indignation on the same day. According to the decree, the traditional festivals are to be adapted to the prevailing opinions and views in the 21st century, it said as a reason. The decree was later adopted as law.
literature
- Manuel Fernández Álvarez: Juana la Loca: La Cautiva de Tordesillas. SLU Espasa Libros, Barcelona 2010, ISBN 978-8467034578 .
Web links
- www.tordesillas.net / Tordesillas Tourist Office
Individual evidence
- ↑ 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).
- ↑ Tordesillas - climate tables
- ↑ Tordesillas - population development
- ↑ Tordesillas - Episodes of History
- ↑ Tordesillas - Museo de San Antolín
- ↑ Tordesillas - Museo del Encaje
- ↑ Medieval bull cruelty triggers protests . derstandard.at. September 11, 2012. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
- ↑ El Toro de la Vega ( Spanish ) tordesillas.net. Archived from the original on August 4, 2013. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
- ↑ 71,000 companies against el Toro de la Vega ( Spanish ) PACMA. June 19, 2012. Retrieved June 3, 2013.
- ↑ Spain: Socialist mayor supports bullfighting in Tordesillas . Retrieved September 15, 2015.
- ↑ "La prohibición de matar en público al Toro de la Vega se convierte en ley" . In: El País of June 8, 2016, accessed June 10, 2016
