Urueña
| Urueña municipality | |||
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 Urueña - town view
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| coat of arms | Map of Spain | ||
 Help on coat of arms |
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| Basic data | |||
| Autonomous Community : |
 Castile and León
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| Province : | Valladolid | ||
| Comarca : | Tierra de Campos | ||
| Coordinates | 41 ° 44 ′ N , 5 ° 12 ′ W | ||
| Height : | 830 msnm | ||
| Area : | 44.07 km² | ||
| Residents : | 182 (Jan. 1, 2019) | ||
| Population density : | 4.13 inhabitants / km² | ||
| Postal code : | 47862 | ||
| Municipality number ( INE ): | 47178 | ||
| administration | |||
| Website : | Urueña | ||
Urueña is a municipality in northern Spain in the province of Valladolid in the autonomous region of Castile and León . The place was in the formerly disputed border area between the county or the kingdom of Castile and the kingdom of León and was therefore surrounded by a city wall in the Middle Ages. This has remained almost completely up to the present day and so the place was recognized as a national cultural asset ( Bien de Interés Cultural ) in the category Conjunto histórico-artístico in 1975 .
Location and climate
Urueña lies on a hill of approx. 830 m in the plateau ( meseta ) in the west of Old Castile . The distance to the provincial capital Valladolid is almost 50 km (driving distance) in an easterly direction; It is about 125 km north to León . The climate in winter is cold, but in summer it is warm to hot; the sparse rain (approx. 420 mm / year) falls throughout the year.
Population development
| year | 1857 | 1900 | 1950 | 2000 | 2019 |
| Residents | 868 | 1.010 | 821 | 212 | 182 |
The significant population decline since the 1950s is mainly due to the mechanization of agriculture and the abandonment of small farms ( rural exodus ).
economy
The area around Urueña is dominated by agriculture; the place itself offered the necessary regional services in the fields of handcraft and trade. Day and weekend tourism have so far only played a subordinate role in the economic life of the municipality.
history
The northwest of the Iberian Peninsula was part of the settlement area of the Vacceos , which remained largely in the dark of history , but no early traces of settlement have been discovered in the area of Urueña. There is also a lack of archaeologically usable evidence from the Romans and the Visigoths . In the 10th and 11th centuries, as part of the reconquest of the country ( reconquista ) , the Moors allowed themselves to be pushed more and more towards the south and the area was repopulated with Christians from the north ( repoblación ) . Under the Castilian King Sancho II (ruled 1065-1072) Urueña was temporarily the capital of a lordship (infantado) that was in fact ruled by his sister Urraca . Almost a century later, King Alfonso VII (r. 1126–1157 over Castile and León) handed over the Infantado of Valladolid with the cities of Castromonte , Medina de Rioseco and Urueña to his sister Sancha Raimúndez . After his death, the Leonese-Castilian crown was divided again between the two sons - Ferdinand II received León and Sancho III. received the part of Castile. Sancho III. however died shortly afterwards and although he had left an underage son ( Alfons VIII ), the rule over the kingdom of Castile was in the hands of his brother Ferdinand. After reaching the age of majority, Alfonso VIII waged war against his uncle, who had recently seized the city of Burgos in the heart of Castile, and forced him to sign a peace treaty. In 1170 he was proclaimed King of Castile. During this time of the Castilian-Leonese tensions in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, the construction of the city wall of Urueña, a rather remote city in the following years, fell into oblivion after the final unification of the two kingdoms of Castile and León in 1230 .
In 1876 a devastating fire destroyed almost half of the town's houses. It was not until the end of the 20th century that the community became aware of its proud past and its cultural heritage, and great efforts were made to bring the place into a state that was also interesting for tourists.
Attractions
- The main attraction of Urueña is the almost completely preserved and about 8-10 m high and at intervals of about 20 to 25 m secured by round towers medieval city wall with its two - rather inconspicuous - city gates: to the north the Puerta del Azogue and to the south the Arco de la Villa .
- In the east of the complex rises the castle complex, which had served as a community cemetery for centuries and was only opened to visitors in 2005.
- The parish church of Santa María del Azogue with its high Gothic choir and its rather puny nave with a bell gable from the Renaissance period shows the political and economic decline of the place. On the south side of the church there is a hint of a porch ( portico ) as can be seen in many older Romanesque churches in Castile (e.g. Jaramillo de la Fuente , Santiuste de Pedraza ).
Surroundings
- About 1.5 km southeast of the town is the Romanesque Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Anunciada , which in its richly structured choir and transept area shows a pilaster structure with rounded arched friezes , which is more common in the Romanesque churches in northern Spain and is commonly known as " Lombard "is called. A new sacristy in the Renaissance style was added to the Romanesque apse in the 16th century .
- The former Cistercian monastery of La Santa Espina is about 10 km east of Urueña .
- Approx. The pre-Romanesque church of San Cebrián de Mazote is 10 km southeast .
City wall from the south
Walls of the castle area
Main street ( Calle Real ) and Arco de la Villa
Arco de la Villa from the outside
dto. - inside
literature
- Luis Cervera Vera: La villa murada de Urueña. Editoral Provincial Excma. Diputación Provincial de Valladolid 1989.
- Fernando Cobos Guerra: Castilla y León. Castillos y Fortalezas. Edilesa 1998, ISBN 84-8012-186-6
Web links
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).
- ↑ Urueña / Valladolid - climate tables
- ↑ Urueña - population development
- ↑ Urueña - city wall and castle
- ↑ Urueña - Church
- ↑ Urueña - Ermita