Alcala de los Gazules

Alcalá de los Gazules is a Spanish municipality and town in the province of Cádiz, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is located in the final foothills of the Sierra de Cádiz, forming part of what is called the Ruta del Toro. It has been a historical-artistic complex since 1984. It is located within the Los Alcornocales natural park (including part of the Sierra del Aljibe). The first stable population is from the year 189 BC. C. and its name was obtained from the Muslim conquest, when the town was renamed Qalat al-Jazula, or 'Castle of the Gazules'. Their main sources of income are tourism and agriculture.

History

Alcalá from "El Mirador" by Benalup.

There are remains of the ancient Lascuta of Roman origin in the town.

King Ferdinand IV of Castile ceded the town and castle of Alcalá de los Gazules to Alfonso Fernández de Córdoba on July 21, 1310, and by oath of inheritance, on the condition that he kept 150 men in said fortress of arms for when the king was at war against the Muslims, and it should be noted that until then this town had belonged to the royal family and that some authors affirm that it was handed over to Alfonso Fernández for being an "expert defender of the border against the Muslims". In addition, the transfer of the lordship of Alcalá de los Gazules was "complete and hereditary", as Marcos Fernández Gómez pointed out, and in the donation privilege the "order of preferences" was even detailed to succeed Alfonso Fernández in the possession of the manor, although it seems that in practice the new owner of the town acted more as mayor than as lord of it, since this seems to be indicated by the fact that there is hardly any data on his performance in Alcalá de los Gazules and the fact that it quickly ceased to belong to him, since Alfonso Fernández did not mention it in his will, and Francisco Fernández de Béthencourt also added that "it left his domain without us knowing when or why". After ceasing to belong to Alfonso Fernández, the town of Alcalá de los Gazules returned to the royal estate.

Demographics

Graphic of demographic evolution of Alcalá de los Gazules between 1900 and 2016

Source: Spanish National Statistical Institute - Graphical development by Wikipedia

Monuments

Landscape of the Alcornocales.

• Castle of Alcalá de los Gazules
• Laja de los Hierros
• Roman branch of the Sporagal Table
• Roman deposits of the Salada
• Casa del Cabildo
• Iglesia Mayor Parroquial de San Jorge
• Convent of Santa Clara
• Church of San Francisco (Church of Victory)
• Convent of Santo Domingo
• Hermitage-Sanctuary of Our Lady of Saints
• Source of the Chamber
• Roman bridge
• State Houses
• Bronze of Lascuta (exhibited at the Louvre Museum, dates from the Roman era).

Castle of Alcalá de los Gazules.

Parties

• Carnivals
• Holy Week
• Feast of Saint George
• Romería de Nuestra Señora de los Santos (patrona)
• Eighth of Our Lady of Saints.
• Al-Kalat International Music Festival

Gastronomy

City Hall.

• Jabalí in sauce
• Beard of cabbage
• Calostros
• Hairy Torta
• Hot gazpacho
• Trigger asparagus soup
• Goat cheese
• Retinue meat
• Venado.
• Brown bread.
• Chicharrones retinto (the countryside)

Notable people

Nature

The privileged situation of the town in the natural park of Los Alcornocales makes it have a wide natural wealth, 20% of the natural park is included in Alcala lands and it is the municipality that owns the most hectares of NP de los alcornocales, At the user level there are several places for public use that are worthwhile, such as the Puerto Oscuro throat (where the Barbate river is born), the El Picacho trail, the Aljibe or popularly known as "pilita de la reina", the "Aula de la Naturaleza del Picacho", or the path of the Molinos de Patrite.

Economy

Evolution of outstanding municipal debt

Graphic of evolution of living debt of the City of Alcalá de los Gazules between 2008 and 2019

Living debt of Alcalá de los Gazules City Council in thousands of Euros according to data from the Ministry of Finance and Ad. Public.