Torres del Río

Torres del Río
View of Torres del Río
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Navarre
Province :	Navarre
Comarca :	Estella Occidental
Coordinates	42 ° 33 ′  N , 2 ° 16 ′  W Coordinates: 42 ° 33 ′  N , 2 ° 16 ′  W
Height :	459  msnm
Area :	12.81 km²
Residents :	126 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	9.84 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	31229
Municipality number  ( INE ):	31231
administration
Mayor :	Juan Luis Pérez Leuza (2007)
Website :	www.torresdelrio.es

Torres del Río is a place on the Camino de Santiago in the Spanish-speaking part of the autonomous community of Navarre . The place name means towers on the river in German , which means the Río Linares .

history

In the area of ​​Torres del Rio, also called Torres de Sansol, there was already a settlement during Roman times. Evidence are excavated pieces (pottery and worked stones) that were found one and a half kilometers from the village in the direction of Logroño while cultivating fields. In the course of the Moorish invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, it was incorporated into Muslim rule and during the Reconquista, after the capture of Monjardín, it was recaptured from the Moors by Christian armies.

A document reports that Jimeno Galíndez donated a monastery in Torres (“justa illo kamino”) to the Irache monastery around 1100. In 1172 Pope Alexander III took the monastery Irache and its abbot Viviano under his protection and confirms the existing possessions, including the one in Torres ("Turres") is mentioned.

Aimeric Picaud mentions Torres and the Linares river in the Book of Jacob as follows: "At a place called Torres, on Navarre soil, a river flows that kills horses and people who drink from it."

Landlord Alvar Díaz de Medrano, son of Juan Martínez de Medrano, who had acquired the rights to the area, donated it to the King of Navarre in 1341 on the condition that he was given judicial power over Viguera, which was later given by Philip III. confirmed by Navarre.

As a result of the conflict between Henry IV of Castile and John II of Aragón , Torres del Río, like the surrounding villages, fell to Castile from 1463 to 1753 , but the fueros continued to apply and the town remained economically oriented towards Navarre.

As part of the Napoleonic occupation, on November 19 or 20, 1809, a battle broke out between a French unit under Coronel Belloc and a guerrilla group under the command of Javier de Mina. On the French side, 800 infantry and 80 cavalrymen faced 500 men on the Spanish side, who were reinforced by a unit under the command of the Cuevillas and some volunteers from Torres, Sansol and Los Arcos . Furthermore, the unit of a rebel leader called Marquesito operated nearby, but did not intervene in the fight. The fighting lasted until nightfall. The French troops feared they would be crushed if the Spanish association united with the Marquesitos' troops, so they retired to a hill near Los Arcos and lit campfires. Mina believed the French were camped there and led his troops on a nighttime surprise attack. But they found the place deserted and had to break off the pursuit in the vicinity of Estella without success. Another documented event was the shooting of the Vicar of Torres, Juan Miguel de Aramendia, by French soldiers on Corpus Christi day, June 13, 1811, at six in the morning.

The repression of the so-called "Blue Period" after the Spanish Civil War found a victim in Torres: the citizen Florentino Rubio was murdered by Falangists .

Santo Sepulcro Church

Dome construction of the Holy Sepulcher Church in Torres

Dome in the great mosque of Cordoba

Attractions

In addition to many houses adorned with coats of arms, the Church of San Andrés, the Ermita Nuestra Señora del Puy, but above all the Iglesia del Santo Sepulcro are worth seeing.

• The Iglesia San Andrés dates from the 16th century and was built in the Renaissance style. It is the local parish church and is dedicated to the apostle and martyr Andreas .

• The Ermita Nuestra Señora del Poyo is a pilgrimage chapel about two and a half kilometers west of Torres. The building from the 16th century has a square floor plan and houses a Gothic statue of the Virgin Mary. The chapel was built at this point because, according to a legend, after her bodily presentation at this point, Our Lady did not allow the figure to be moved to another location.

Iglesia del Santo Sepulcro

The Romanesque Holy Sepulcher Church of Torres del Río was built between 1160 and 1170. The building has an octagonal floor plan, the semicircular apse adjoins it in the east, a round tower in the west, it is crowned by a likewise octagonal lantern , the portal opens to the south. The walls of the octagon are divided into three storeys, each marked by a narrow cornice and the lower two of which are joined by semi-pointed blind arcades . On the third floor, richly decorated Romanesque double arches dominate over columns, each of which holds a narrow window. The corners of the building are highlighted by pillars, this design element is repeated inside. There is also a chessboard frieze , grave and crucifixion scenes on the apse capitals and the probably Moorish-influenced dome construction. This consists of a network of crossing belt arches that form an octagonal space in the middle, above which the lantern rises. The model of this construction can be found in the mihrāb of the Mezquita of Córdoba .

There are no documents on the founding history of the chapel. In the older literature, the building is consistently attributed to the Knights Templar , as this order had a certain preference for central buildings. According to a newly found document, however, the building was built by the Chapter of the Canons of the Holy Sepulcher . The Holy Sepulcher Church of Torres del Río was a subsidiary of St. Mary's Church in Logroño, which also belonged to this order.

Population development of the municipality

Source: INE archive - graphic processing for Wikipedia

literature

• Míllan Bravo Lozano: Practical pilgrim guide. The Camino de Santiago. Editorial Everest, Léon 1994, ISBN 84-241-3835-X .
• Klaus Herbers , The Way of St. James: With a medieval pilgrim guide on the way to Santiago de Compostela, Tübingen, 1986, ISBN 3-87808-312-2 .
• Werner Schäfke , Northwest Spain, Dumont Buchverlag, Cologne, 3rd edition 1989, ISBN 3-7701-1589-9 .
• Heinz Schomann, Art Monuments of the Iberian Peninsula, Part 1 - Portugal and Northern Spain, Scientific Book Society Darmstadt, special edition 1996 for the members of the Scientific Book Society.

Web links

Commons : Torres del Río  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Information about the Camino Francés
• Torres del Río near Romanico en Navarra (Spanish)
• Torres del Río in the Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia (Euskomedia Fundazioa) (Basque / Spanish / English)

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. ↑ Torres del Río - local information of the regional government of Navarre (Spanish)
3. ↑ Herbers, p. 92
4. ↑ For the history section cf. Bernardo Estornés Lasa - Auñamendi Encyclopedia / Historia
5. ↑ ^{a b} Nikolas Jaspert: Stift und Stadt. The Holy Sepulcher Priory of Santa Anna and the Canon Regular Monastery of Santa Eulàlia del Camp in medieval Barcelona (1145-1423). 575 S., Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, 1996, pp. 84, 90.

Navigation bar St. James " Camino Francés "

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