Calamocha

Calamocha is a town and municipality in Spain, administrative capital of the Jiloca region, in the northwest of the province of Teruel, in the autonomous community of Aragon, 70 km from Teruel. The municipality has an area of 316.63 km², with a population of 4,628 inhabitants (INE 2011) and a density of 14.61 inhabitants/km².

Calamocha is located on the banks of the Jiloca River, at the bottom of the wide valley formed by this river in the Ebro basin, surrounded by the mountain ranges of the Iberian System in which it is located. It is located in the Cantabrian-Mediterranean Corridor, one of the main transport hubs in Spain that connects Valencia, Zaragoza and Bilbao, halfway between the cities of Teruel and Zaragoza.

Calamocha is the most important town in the northwestern third of the province. He is head of the judicial district of Calamocha, one of the three in the province. Its economy is based mainly on the service sector. It is the main commercial and service center in the northwestern area of the province. However, it also has a notable industrial sector, where the agri-food industry and the construction materials industry stand out. Calamocha is one of the main producers of Teruel Ham.

Population centers

In the municipality of Calamocha there are, in addition to the main nucleus (Calamocha, with postal code 44200), another eleven population centers or districts:

• Collados
• Cuencabuena
• Cutanda
• Lechago
• Luco de Jiloca
• Navarrete del Río
• Nurses
• Olalla
• The Poyo of the Cid
• Valverde
• Villarejo de los Olmos

Adjacent municipalities

Northwest: Burbáguena	North: Ferreruela de Huerva and Lagueruela	Northeast: Bea and Fonfría
West: Tough		This: Torrecilla del Rebollar y Barrachina
Southwest: Torralba de los Sisones	South: Fuentes Claras y Bañón	Sureste: Cosa

Demography

Graphic of demographic evolution of Calamocha between 1842 and 2021

Between the 1970 Census and 1981 the term of the municipality grows because it incorporates 44081 (Collados), 44091 (Cuencabuena), 44095 (Cutanda), 44134 (Lechago), 44140 (Luco de Jiloca), 44162 (Navarrete del Rïvero), 44166 (Nueros), 44170 (Olalla), 44188 (Power) Population of law according to population censuses of the INE. Population of law according to population censuses of the INE + expansion of the municipality. Population in fact according to population censuses of the INE. Population according to the municipal register of 2021 of the INE.

It has a population of 4,485 inhabitants (INE 2022).

Graphic of demographic evolution of Calamocha between 1998 and 2022

Population according to the municipal register as of 1 January of the INE.

History

Calamocha is a crossroads of present-day Aragon, passing through its boundaries the Roman road that linked Caesar Augusta with Corduba. A Roman bridge is preserved from that period, built over the course of the Jiloca River.

The Arabs remained here for four centuries, during which they left a good part of their culture, developed a complex irrigation system and even gave the town a name: Qal'at Musa (قلعة موسى), which means &# 34;Fortress of Musa', named after its founder, Musa ibn Musa.

El Cid Campeador located his barracks there, specifically on the top of El Poyo. A short distance away he fought the famous battle of Tevar against Ramón Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona. Alfonso I "The Battler" He Christianized these lands starting in 1123, repopulating them with his loyal Navarrese and Gascons. In 1222 a dramatic meeting took place in Calamocha between James I "The Conqueror" and Pedro de Ahones, the latter reluctant to expand towards the Mediterranean intended by the young monarch.

On December 16, 1706, a battle was fought between the troops of Archduke Charles and the supporters of Philip V in the War of Succession after the death of the last of the Austrians, Charles II. Luck here favored the Austrians, leaving the battlefield strewn with corpses from both sides.

At the beginning of the XX century, the railway arrived in Calamocha, with the entry into service of the Calatayud-Valencia line. Decades later, in 1933, the Caminreal-Zaragoza line was inaugurated. Consequently, the municipality came to have two railway stations, Calamocha-Vega and Calamocha-Nueva, having connections with Zaragoza, Calatayud, Teruel, Sagunto and Valencia. Currently, only the Calamocha-Nueva station, on the Zaragoza-Sagunto line, remains in service.

Geography

Integrated in the Jiloca region, it is located 73 kilometers from the provincial capital. The municipal area is crossed by the Mudéjar Highway (A-23) and by the N-234 road between points 187 and 202, as well as by the regional roads A-1507, which heads towards Tornos, A-1508, which connects with Barrachina, and through small local roads that allow communication with Torralba de los Sisones, Lagueruela and Fonfría.

Calamocha is located on a terrace of the Jiloca River, in an area where the river begins to narrow its valley as it leaves the Jiloca (or Calamocha-Teruel) depression and enters the Tertiary sediments of the Calatayud trench. -Montalbán and Paleozoics of the Santa Cruz-Valdellosa mountains. The environment closest to Calamocha has a flat topography due to the accumulations of detrital materials from terraces and glacis that have been deposited during the Quaternary by the torrents coming from the nearby mountain units. On the margins of the valley you enter, towards the west, the Ordovician slate and quartzite ranges of Valdellosa and Santa Cruz, mountain ranges without truly important projections, since smoothed forms predominate, although they reach 1,229 meters (peak Valdellosa). To the northeast, the Pelarda mountain range acts as a watershed between the Pancrudo and Huerva rivers and is where the highest altitudes are reached: Pelarda (1,512 meters), Marujal (1,486 meters) and Retuerta (1,452 meters).

The topographic break that appears to the east of Calamocha corresponds to a marginal fault in the detrital and calcareous Tertiary materials, modeled in platforms or molars, or in carved forms when clayey sediments predominate, as occurs in the divide with the lower course of the Pancrudo River. The final stretch of this river, starting about 650 meters from the mouth of the Jiloca, will be covered by a reservoir whose waters will occupy the bottom of the valley until the Lechago area.

The central part of the term, with a flat relief, has favored intense agricultural use, with the cultivation of large areas that have relegated the remains of natural vegetation to the mountains that border the term, located to the east and west. of the population center. The only thing that stands out in this monotony of cereal crops is the Jiloca riverbed, poor in terms of plant species and with a high degree of anthropization, which has reduced the riverbank plant formations to mere lines that accompany the riverbed. In the mountains we can see extensive oak forests, such as to the west of Calamocha, sometimes mixed due to the presence of gall oak specimens, in the lower parts of the foothills. On other occasions the oaks have given way to pine reforestation.

The altitude ranges between 1,512 meters in the Sierra de Pelarda, to the northeast, and 825 meters on the banks of the Jiloca River. The urban area rises 884 meters above sea level.

Climate

Calamocha has a steppe climate, a temperate and semi-arid climate with cold winters, mild summers, little and concentrated rainfall in spring and autumn and a large daily thermal amplitude. This thermal amplitude is what causes regular frosts at night during the winter months of December, January and February (between twenty-five and thirty days a month) while during the day the temperature reaches mild values of even above of positive 10°C.

As a curious fact and due to the thermal amplitude, Calamocha is famous in Spain because during the winter the lowest daily minimum temperatures in the country are reached on many occasions (record of -30 °C during the night of December 17). December 1963). Likewise, snowfall occurs sporadically but not abundantly in winter. Summers are mild thanks to the altitude, which prevents excessively hot temperatures on summer nights, and summer storms are also characteristic of this season.

Average climate parameters of Calamocha (Reference period: 1960-2010)
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Temp. max. abs. (°C)	19.0	22.0	24.0	27.0	29.0	38.4	39.0	40.0	34.0	26.0	21.0	18.0	40.0
Average temperature (°C)	5.9	8.5	12.0	14.3	17.8	22.5	24.5	24.2	22.0	16.2	11.6	8.2	15.6
Average temperature (°C)	1.9	3.7	6.9	9.2	12.9	17.3	19.4	19.2	16.9	11.2	6.7	3.8	10.8
Temp. medium (°C)	-2.0	-1.1	1.8	4.2	8.0	12.1	14.4	14.2	11.8	6.3	1.8	-0.6	5.9
Temp. min. abs. (°C)	-24.0	-21.0	-18.0	-12.0	-8.0	-2.0	0.0	1.0	-1.0	-9.0	-17.0	-30.0	-30.0
Total precipitation (mm)	19	18	27	35	65	58	26	29	44	38	24	31	414
Source: Spanish Climate Base and Climate.org

Government and administration

The Calamocha City Council is the institution in charge of the government and administration of the municipality of Calamocha with regard to municipal level powers. The main political and governing body of the Calamocha City Council is the Municipal Plenary Session, made up of the Mayor and Councilors. The Calamocha municipal plenary session is made up of eleven councilors (of which one of them is the mayor). Councilors are democratically elected every four years through municipal elections. The last elections took place in May 2023. The Mayor is the councilor in charge of directing the municipal government and administration and representing the Calamocha City Council and is elected by the Councilors. He is the highest-ranking position in the city council.

Currently, the position of Mayor of Calamocha falls to Manuel Rando López, belonging to the PSOE.

The municipal plenary session of the Calamocha City Council is currently as follows:

Last mayors of Calamocha

Election results

Tourism

Calamocha, an important town in the history of Aragon, has a great historical, artistic and cultural legacy nestled in a natural environment of great beauty.

The main tourist attraction of Calamocha, in terms of historical and architectural heritage, is the historic center of the town, its historic core. It is located around the impetuous Archpriest Church of Santa María La Mayor, from the XVIII century and with a Baroque façade. The historic center of the town is dotted with Aragonese-style palaces. The archpriest church of Santa María La Mayor was built on the old fortified castle of the town, from the XIV century, from which They preserve some remains and it appears in the town's coat of arms. Also notable in the historical complex of the town is the Franciscan Conceptionist Convent of San Miguel Arcángel, a baroque building from the XVII century.

On the other hand, very close to the historic center, over the Jiloca River, is the Roman Bridge of Calamocha, a Roman-era bridge with a single arch and built in ashlars that once served to cross the Jiloca River in Calamocha, on the way from Zaragoza to Córdoba, an essential visit point for every tourist. Next to this bridge is the town's linear riverside park, which runs along the Riberas del Jiloca through the town and connects with the Rafael Ángulo Municipal Park, the town's main recreational area made up of various fountains, a lake, a park of sculptures and a spring, all next to the Jiloca River.

Calamocha is part of the Camino del Cid, a tourist route that follows the steps that Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, the Cid Campeador, walked in the Middle Ages. An important milestone on this route is located in the district of El Poyo del Cid, where El Cid settled for a time, and which owes its name to him.

Likewise, Calamocha is surrounded by true artistic and natural jewels, such as the Mudejar towers of Jiloca, the Gallocanta lagoon, the Peracense castle or the medieval city of Daroca, a short distance from the town. Likewise, different itineraries to do by bike, car or walking, through the different natural spaces of the Jiloca Region: valleys, mountains, riverbanks, hills, fountains, springs and forests, can be done starting from the regional capital, Calamocha.

As far as accommodation is concerned, Calamocha has a wide range of beds made up of several hotels, hostels, apartments and rural tourism houses. Likewise, there are abundant restaurants and shops in the town where you can taste the gastronomy and typical products of the town.

The Calamocha Information and Tourism Office is located very close to the historic center of the town, at Paseo Palafox, 1.

Monuments and places of interest

• Roman bridge of Calamocha.
• Banks of the river Jiloca.
• Church of Santa María la Mayor, centuryXVII.
• Conceptionist Religious Convent.
• Chapel of the Holy Christ, centuries XVII-XVIII.
• Hermitage of San Roque.
• Solarium houses.
• Old Town Streets.
• Recreational area in Monte Cañada de Santa Barbara.
• Municipal Park Rafael Angulo
• Monument to San Roque and the Dancer.

Architectural heritage

On Mayor Street (officially Carlos Castel Street) is located the most splendid civil complex in the entire Jiloca Valley, the Vicente Íñigo Palace, a large palace or manor house, divided into two, built by the Vicente families. of Espejo and Tejada.

In the Plaza de Bartolomé Esteban we find the Casa de Rivera, a mansion built in ashlar stone that has the Rivera family coat of arms. The Valero de Bernabé palace, on Real Street (officially Justino Bernad Street), was built at the end of the 16th century and reformed in the XVIII, at which time a body was added on the right bank, perfectly distinguishable from the rest as it lacked arches in the attic. Another notable home in the town is the one known as Casa Marina.

Other interesting civil buildings are the Casa de los Rivera, next to the church, the Casino, the Rectoral House and other specific architectural elements of multiple other homes in the town.

Within the religious heritage we can highlight the Parish Church of the Assumption of Our Lady of Calamocha and its splendid tower. Other important buildings and monuments are the following: the Hermitages of San Roque, Santa Bárbara and Santo Cristo del Arrabal, and the convent of San Miguel Arcángel. The Peirón or Crucero of the Plaza del Peirón (officially Plaza de Bartolomé Esteban) and the statue of the Dancer located in the same square deserve special mention due to their identity value.

Water architecture

Regarding the interesting architecture of water, in the town of Calamocha there is a large concentration of hydraulic industries in the El Cubo and Las Monjas Acequias, being one of the most interesting complexes in Jiloca, with multiple irrigation ditches that distribute the water: Acequia de los Galachos. The architectural elements are very numerous:

• La Fábrica de papel de estraza, reconvertida hacia 1930 en la Fábrica de luz "El jump" y otro Fábrica de papel ubicado en la calle de las Fábricas, actualmente desapariciónda.

• The copper Martinetes of Ribera and Garcés de Marcilla, transformed the latter in the centuryXX. in the "La Salumí" Light Factory.

• The Harine Molinos of Outside and Inside.

• Remains of the old textile activities, such as the Lavadero de lanas and the Mantas Factory.

• Light factory "El Salobral".

• The Lavadero del Ajutar (Calamocha), one of the few examples that last from the laundry network that existed in the urban center.

• The bridges over the river Jiloca, highlighting the Roman bridge of Calamocha, but also the Ratero Bridge and the missing Bridge of the Sea.

• Sources of La Cirujeda and El Bosque.

Within the ethnological heritage, in addition to that linked to water, we can also highlight the Old Tejerías and the more modern one of La Vega, the La Vega Railway Station and the Silo.

There is a broader inventory of real estate assets prepared by the Jiloca Study Center in 2006, which can be consulted directly online or by requesting a DVD from the Jiloca Region.

Festivals, customs and gastronomy

In winter, Three Kings Night stands out, known locally as the “night of the fifths.” The centenary pilgrimage to the hermitage of Santa Bárbara (“Day of the Hill”) is celebrated on the first Sunday in May. The main festivals are celebrated in August and September:

During the month of August, the festivities are celebrated in honor of the Virgin and San Roque, on the 15th, 16th and 17th. The traditional "Baile de San Roque" a popular dance of the town in which several hundred dancers dance in the procession of the town's patron saint, to whom sayings and prayers are also addressed.

The clothing used is a white long-sleeved shirt, long white pants, a maroon checkered cachirulo, a blue sash, white esparto slippers to tie, and castanets with colored ribbons. The dance has recently turned 125 years old - on August 16, 2011 - and many outsiders come to Calamocha year after year to experience this exciting procession, well known at the regional level. During the month of September, the festivities of Santo Cristo del Arrabal take place, on the 10th, 11th and 12th.

With regard to popular music, the most notable is the Calamocha Music Band, which was required in the first third of the century XX in various towns, which sought to give greater prominence to the musical aspect in their festivities and today it continues to be present in celebrations, processions or other official or unofficial events.

Ritual breads are never missing in Calamochina festivities: in the form of donuts or rolls they are hung to the image of the saint during the procession, thus acquiring special properties, especially protection. During the festivals of San Roque and San Isidro, their respective brotherhoods are in charge of preparing them. On San Antón's Day, a small roll is given to the owner of each animal after blessing it, and on San Blas's Day, the roscones acquire a healing component, as does the blessed feed given to the animals.

Special mention deserves the sausages, preserves and the renowned Teruel ham that in Calamocha acquires a letter of introduction, among the multitude of establishments that offer this product on both sides of the road.

They also have their fame, among the varied and rich gastronomy of the place, borage, fasting beans and Christmas thistle. All of this within an extensive range of products from the plains that, due to their special climatic conditions and the goodness of the land, achieve a touch of exquisite flavor.

The cod stews, eggs with salmorejo, baked lamb with potatoes a la poor, are highly requested dishes that connect with the most native gastronomy. The famous escaldadas, muffins and hollow cakes stand out in pastries, as well as the drunken cakes and the sought-after meringues and Sanroquicos de Calamocha.

Associations

As happens in the rural world, most neighborhood groups have a religious character: brotherhoods, brotherhoods, etc. The main religious association is the Parish of Santa María la Mayor de Calamocha, which brings together all the faithful of the town. However, others that have existed throughout history could be highlighted:

• Costume of San Antón de Calamocha
• Convent of San Miguel Arcángel de Calamocha

We also find some irrigation communities, societies, cooperatives and union groups related to agricultural and livestock work:

• Agricultural and livestock cooperative San Roque de Calamocha

There are also numerous cultural associations, which appeared after the 1978 Constitution, once freedom of association and assembly was consolidated:

• Asociación para el Desarrollo Rural Integral (ADRI) del Jiloca-Gallocanta
• Centro de Estudios del Jiloca
• Casino de Calamocha
• Association of the Third Age of Calamocha-Jiloca
• Asociación de Amas de Casa Santa María la Mayor de Calamocha

The option for foundations has been much more limited, with only the San Roque de Calamocha Foundation being able to stand out.

At the end of the 20th century a fundamental phenomenon occurred for the consolidation of public opinion with the appearance of a press consolidated in Calamocha that extends its influence throughout the region. Calamocha's current media outlets are:

• El Comarcal del Jiloca, biweekly newspaper
• Calamocha TV, municipal public television
• Radio Calamocha - COPE Jiloca, radio station

Services

Education

Health

Industry

Industrial estates

Communications

Calamocha is located in one of the main transport hubs in Spain, the Cantabrian - Mediterranean Corridor, approximately in the middle of the Zaragoza-Teruel section. This corridor is a transversal corridor that connects the east of Spain (Valencia) with the north of Spain (Bilbao and Santander) by highway (A-23 and A-68) and rail, passing through Zaragoza.

By road

• With Teruel and Valencia: Autovía Mudéjar (A-23)
• With Zaragoza and Basque Country: Autovía Mudéjar (A-23) and Autovía del Ebro (A-68)
• With Madrid: N-211 National Road (Monreal del Campo - Alcolea del Pinar) and Autovía del Nordeste (A-2)
• With Catalonia: national road N-211 (Caminreal - Alcañiz - Tarragona)

Bus and taxi services

• Ruta Zaragoza - Calamocha - Teruel (managed by the company group Jiménez)
• Ruta Zaragoza - Calamocha - Teruel - Valencia - Alicante - Murcia (managed by the concession company Grupo Jiménez)
• Ruta Teruel - Monreal del Campo - Guadalajara - Madrid (managed by the concession company Grupo Samar)
• Calamocha Route - Bello (Grupo Jiménez)
• Ruta Calamocha - Fonfría - Muniesa (Autobuses Rosendo Navarro)
• Ruta Calamocha - Barrachina - Torrecilla del Rebollar (Autobuses Rosendo Navarro)
• Ruta Calamocha - Ferreruela de Huerva - Loscos
• Several taxi services in Calamocha and the region

By rail

• With Teruel, Zaragoza and Valencia: Media Distance Line MD 49: Valencia - Teruel - Calamocha - Zaragoza - Huesca, operated by the company Renfe.

Notable people