Calatañazor
Calatañazor is a municipality located in the province of Soria, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2010 census (INE), the municipality has a population of 70 inhabitants. The municipality is named after the tiny fortified city on top of a hill.
Also situated in the municipality are the hamlets Aldehuela and Abioncillo. Abioncillo used to be abandoned like many forsaken hamlets in Spain, but in the 1980s was turned around by a few dedicated teachers into an educational center.
In the valley between Calatañazor and Abioncillo, the Battle of Calatañazor took place in 1002. This place is still named El valle de la sangre (the valley of blood). Almanzor, the ruler of Muslim Al-Andalus is by some historians said to have died in this battle and was buried in Medinaceli. There is a statue of him in Calatañazor.
A certain kind of juniper tree, the Juniperus thurifera (Spanish juniper), grows in a close forest in the nature reserve of El Sabinar de Calatañazor. Some are the biggest to be found in the whole Iberian peninsula. Some more are found close to an underground river, the Abión, which surfaces at the Fuentona de Muriel, a natural heritage site. The Fuentona (spring) is often visited, especially by advanced cave divers. The locals call this spring El Ojo de la Mar (the eye of the sea). In the vicinity of Abioncillo, some 4000-year-old drawings are found in La Cueva Maja. Both in the center of Abioncillo and Calatañazor, some centuries old elms can be found, as in Celt-Iberian times were an important symbol.
The name Calatañazor comes from the Arab Qalat al-Nusur which can either mean "Castle of Azure" or "Castle of Vultures".
Also situated in the municipality are the hamlets Aldehuela and Abioncillo. Abioncillo used to be abandoned like many forsaken hamlets in Spain, but in the 1980s was turned around by a few dedicated teachers into an educational center.
In the valley between Calatañazor and Abioncillo, the Battle of Calatañazor took place in 1002. This place is still named El valle de la sangre (the valley of blood). Almanzor, the ruler of Muslim Al-Andalus is by some historians said to have died in this battle and was buried in Medinaceli. There is a statue of him in Calatañazor.
A certain kind of juniper tree, the Juniperus thurifera (Spanish juniper), grows in a close forest in the nature reserve of El Sabinar de Calatañazor. Some are the biggest to be found in the whole Iberian peninsula. Some more are found close to an underground river, the Abión, which surfaces at the Fuentona de Muriel, a natural heritage site. The Fuentona (spring) is often visited, especially by advanced cave divers. The locals call this spring El Ojo de la Mar (the eye of the sea). In the vicinity of Abioncillo, some 4000-year-old drawings are found in La Cueva Maja. Both in the center of Abioncillo and Calatañazor, some centuries old elms can be found, as in Celt-Iberian times were an important symbol.
The name Calatañazor comes from the Arab Qalat al-Nusur which can either mean "Castle of Azure" or "Castle of Vultures".
Map - Calatañazor
Map
Country - Spain
Flag of Spain |
Anatomically modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 42,000 years ago. The ancient Iberian and Celtic tribes, along with other pre-Roman peoples, dwelled the territory maintaining contacts with foreign Mediterranean cultures. The Roman conquest and colonization of the peninsula (Hispania) ensued, bringing the Romanization of the population. Receding of Western Roman imperial authority ushered in the migration of different non-Roman peoples from Central and Northern Europe with the Visigoths as the dominant power in the peninsula by the fifth century. In the early eighth century, most of the peninsula was conquered by the Umayyad Caliphate, and during early Islamic rule, Al-Andalus became a dominant peninsular power centered in Córdoba. Several Christian kingdoms emerged in Northern Iberia, chief among them León, Castile, Aragon, Portugal, and Navarre made an intermittent southward military expansion, known as Reconquista, repelling the Islamic rule in Iberia, which culminated with the Christian seizure of the Emirate of Granada in 1492. Jews and Muslims were forced to choose between conversion to Catholicism or expulsion, and eventually the converts were expelled through different royal decrees.
Currency / Language
ISO | Currency | Symbol | Significant figures |
---|---|---|---|
EUR | Euro | € | 2 |
ISO | Language |
---|---|
EU | Basque language |
CA | Catalan language |
GL | Galician language |
OC | Occitan language |
ES | Spanish language |