Almendralejo

History

A fort covering 13,000 square meters with three concentric walls, three ditches, and 25 towers was constructed in the area 4,900 years ago. The fort was destroyed and the area burnt 400 years after its construction in 2450 BC. It is similar to the Los Millares site. No known human activity occurred in the area until the 100–200s AD. The Missorium of Theodosius I, one of the best surviving examples of late Roman imagery, was found here.

The "Albero de ferria" at Almendralejo, constructed in 1747, was one of the earliest examples of a large scale hydropower dam. It was 122 m long and 19.5 m high. It was a rubble-masonry structure and had several buttresses to strengthen it. Some of these were roofed over to house a mill and it was the first dam to contain a water wheel actually within its structure.

In the late 19th and early 20th century the town was an important centre for the trade in grain, fruit and wine, along the Mérida-Los Rosales railway, and the site of an important annual sheep fair.

There was a battle and massacre here in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.

The future Queen Letizia of Spain married Alonso Guerrero Pérez, a writer and teacher in Almendralejo in 1998. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1999.

Geography

Almendralejo is situated about 45 km to the southeast of Badajoz on the railway line between Seville and Mérida. It is to the south of the River Guadiana on an extensive plain, with the slightly raised area to the south being known as the Tierra de Barros. The town grew rapidly at the end of the nineteenth century as the roads and railways were developed. It has broad streets and handsome buildings. The economy is centred on agriculture with extensive cultivation of cereals, fruit and grapes.

Culture

Notable historical buildings of Almendralejo include the church of the Purification, the Iglesia Parroquial de Nuestra Señora de la Purificación, finished in 1515, in Gothic style. It has a well-proportioned tower and a seventeenth century retablo (devotional painting). The Palacio del Marqués de Monsalud is a seventeenth century building now used as council offices. The building surrounds a central courtyard, and on the ground floor there are arches mounted on pink granite columns, and a pedestal decorated with eighteenth century Seville tiles; on the first floor there is a red ceramic balustrade supported by small granite columns with arches. It was the birthplace of the revolutionary poet José de Espronceda, and houses a museum of Roman antiquities found in the region.

Carolina Coronado (full name: Victoria Carolina Coronado y Romero de Tejada) (12 December 1820 – 15 January 1911) was a Spanish writer, famous for her poetry, considered the equivalent of contemporary Romantic authors like Rosalía de Castro. As one of the most well-known poets writing in mid-19th-century Spain, she also played a diplomatic role. (She was married to Horatio Perry, the American Secretary of the U.S. Legation in Madrid.) She both negotiated with the Spanish royal family in private and, through a series of widely published poems, promoted the aims of the Lincoln administration, especially abolition of slavery.{{refn|{{cite journal | url-access= subscription

Demographics

The graph below shows the change in population since 1842.

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ImageSize = width:700 height:350 PlotArea = left:50 bottom:30 top:30 right:30 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:36000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:b increment:6000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:a increment:1000 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:c

BarData=

bar:1842 text:1842 bar:1857 text:1857 bar:1877 text:1877 bar:1887 text:1887 bar:1900 text:1900 bar:1910 text:1910 bar:1920 text:1920 bar:1930 text:1930 bar:1940 text:1940 bar:1950 text:1950 bar:1960 text:1960 bar:1970 text:1970 bar:1981 text:1981 bar:1991 text:1991 bar:2001 text:2001 bar:2011 text:2011 bar:2012 text:2012

PlotData= color:d width:20 align:left

bar:1842 from:0 till: 5810 bar:1857 from:0 till: 9452 bar:1877 from:0 till: 9712 bar:1887 from:0 till: 12206 bar:1900 from:0 till: 12587 bar:1910 from:0 till: 13573 bar:1920 from:0 till: 15488 bar:1930 from:0 till: 17597 bar:1940 from:0 till: 21276 bar:1950 from:0 till: 21410 bar:1960 from:0 till: 21104 bar:1970 from:0 till: 22168 bar:1981 from:0 till: 23720 bar:1991 from:0 till: 24268 bar:2001 from:0 till: 27521 bar:2011 from:0 till: 34319 bar:2012 from:0 till: 34694

PlotData=

bar:1842 at: 5810 fontsize:s text: 5,810 shift:(-10,5) bar:1857 at: 9452 fontsize:s text: 9,452 shift:(-10,5) bar:1877 at: 9712 fontsize:s text: 9,712 shift:(-10,5) bar:1887 at: 12206 fontsize:s text: 12,206 shift:(-10,5) bar:1900 at: 12587 fontsize:s text: 12,587 shift:(-15,5) bar:1910 at: 13573 fontsize:s text: 13,573 shift:(-15,5) bar:1920 at: 15488 fontsize:s text: 15,488 shift:(-15,5) bar:1930 at: 17597 fontsize:s text: 17,597 shift:(-15,5) bar:1940 at: 21276 fontsize:s text: 21,276 shift:(-15,5) bar:1950 at: 21410 fontsize:s text: 21,410 shift:(-15,5) bar:1960 at: 21104 fontsize:s text: 21,104 shift:(-15,5) bar:1970 at: 22168 fontsize:s text: 22,168 shift:(-15,5) bar:1981 at: 23720 fontsize:s text: 23,720 shift:(-15,5) bar:1991 at: 24268 fontsize:s text: 24,268 shift:(-15,5) bar:2001 at: 27521 fontsize:s text: 27,521 shift:(-15,5) bar:2011 at: 34319 fontsize:s text: 34,319 shift:(-15,5) bar:2012 at: 34694 fontsize:s text: 34,694 shift:(-15,5)

Sport

CF Extremadura represented the town in domestic football competitions. Founded in 1924, they reached their peak in 1996 when they secured promotion for the 1996–97 La Liga season for the first time in their history. After relegation at the end of their inaugural season in La Liga, the club returned to the top division for the 1998–99 season, again failing to stay in the top division. Following several years of financial problems, the club folded eventually in 2010.

In 2007, another football club known as Extremadura UD was founded as a continuation of the financially struggling previous club. As of 2018, Extremadura UD are playing in the Segunda División (the second level of the Spanish football league system). With a capacity of 11,580 seats, Estadio Francisco de la Hera is the home ground of the club.

Gallery

File:Palacio de Monsalud.jpg|The town hall Palacio de Monsalud File:SP278 Plaza de Esponceda Almendralejo extremadura Spain 2 Oct 2012.JPG|Plaza Esponceda File:Plaza de Espronceda, Almendralejo.jpg|Carolina Coronado Theatre at Plaza Esponceda

References

Works cited

References

1. Reynolds, Terry S.. (2002). "Stronger Than a Hundred Men: A History of the Vertical Water Wheel". JHU Press.
2. (1930). "Almendralejo".
3. Wyden, Peter. (January 1986). "The Passionate War: The Narrative History of the Spanish Civil War". Simon & Schuster.
4. "Prefiere los pantalones a la falda". Diario de Navarra.
5. (2 June 2014). "Meet Spain's Future Queen Letizia: 5 Things to Know About King Felipe's Stunning Wife". eonline.com.
6. There are many vineyards around the town, with a local red wine being produced, and the area is also known for the production of brandy.{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Almendralejo |volume= 01 |short= x }}
7. (2004). "Walking the Via de la Plata: The Camino de Santiago from Sevilla to Santiago de Compostela". Pili Pala Press.
8. Data from the National statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística (España)), Retrieved 2011 with a later addition.