Olive groves

Olivares is a Spanish municipality in the province of Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It is located within the Aljarafe region. It is on the banks of the Agrio river, a tributary of the Guadiamar river. This municipality is the center of the aljarafe with the best players in its quarries

Location

It is located at an altitude of 169 meters and 16 kilometers from the provincial capital, Seville.

Albaida del Aljarafe	Gerena
		Salteras
Sanlúcar la Mayor		Villanueva del Ariscal

Demographics

The number of inhabitants from 2007 to 2016 was:

History

Puerta del Palacio del conde-duque de Olivares, with a white marble porch.

After the Roman conquest of the Bética province by Turculus, a Roman villa called Estercolines or Estercolinas was founded where Olivares is currently located. Within the municipal term is a mound known as Cerro de la Cabeza, where there must have been a Roman city of relative importance built in the times of César Augusto. Trade and communication with other cultures was carried out through the Maenoba river, today known as Guadiamar. Also within the term there are remains of a Roman aqueduct from which water was carried from the disappeared city of Tejada to Itálica.

From the Muslim period, a defensive tower from the 12th century remains next to the Olivares-Gerena highway, known as the Torre de San Antonio because that is the name of the farm where it is located. It is a mocha tower (without battlements) of three stories square in plan, with windows on all four walls on the third story.

In the XIII century, the lands where this municipality is located were donated by King Ferdinand III to the infantes Manuel and Fadrique. In 1356 these lands appear as the property of Álvaro Pérez de Guzmán under the name of Estercolinas. Estercolinas and neighboring Heliche appear in 1484 as del Guzmán, who was Duke of Medina Sidonia. The fourth son of this duke was Pedro de Guzmán, born in Seville in 1503. He served Carlos I in the fighting in Germany, Flanders, Austria and Tunisia. On October 15, 1535, Carlos I named Pedro de Guzmán Count of Olivares. After a lawsuit with his brother, Juan Alonso de Guzmán, he founded his estate in Estercolinas, and changed the name of the place to Olivares. In 1538 Pedro de Guzmán bought the towns of Heliche, Castilleja de Alcántara and Castilleja de la Cuesta.

In 1539 Pedro married Francisca Ribera Niño and, although they lived in Madrid, they had several houses in the province of Seville. In the middle of the XVI century, the 1st Count of Olivares built his palace in the town. This palace is in the Renaissance style. The main portal, made of marble, the main patio with columns and the shield on the façade still remain.

In Olivares there was a hermitage dedicated to the Virgen del Álamo, who was the patron saint of the town, and which may date from the XIVth century (although a legend says that it was found in 1247 in the hollow of a poplar tree). Since 1653 this Virgin has been in a chapel on the left side of the presbytery of the collegiate church of Santa María de las Nieves.

Enrique de Guzmán y Ribera, II Count of Olivares, was the Spanish ambassador in Rome, and in 1590 received a bull from Pope Gregory XIII to create a chapel in Olivares, which was endowed with twelve chaplains and a senior chaplain.

The 3rd Count of Olivares and 1st Duke of Sanlúcar la Mayor, Gaspar de Guzmán y Pimentel, was a king Felipe IV. He inherited the county in 1607. In 1623 he was granted a bull by Pope Urban VII that raised the rank of the chapel to a collegiate church. The person in charge of the collegiate church became a mitred major abbot, who had canonical authority in Olivares, Heliche, Albaida del Aljarafe, Sanlúcar la Mayor, Castilleja de Guzmán and part of Castilleja de la Cuesta.

The nearby town called Heliche was depopulated in 1817 and its parish, that of San Benito, subsisted until 1843.

Tower of San Antonio. It is a mocha tower (without hives) built by Muslims in the centuryXII.

Economy

It owns 2,725 ha of arable crops, of which 61 ha are wheat and 1,215 are sunflowers. There are 829 ha of woody crops, of which 560 ha are table olive groves.

Nearby there is a train station on the C-5 commuter line, the Villanueva del Ariscal-Olivares station.

Evolution of outstanding municipal debt

The concept of outstanding debt includes only debts with savings banks and banks related to financial credits, fixed-income securities and loans or credits transferred to third parties, excluding, therefore, commercial debt.

Graphic of evolution of the living debt of the City of Olivares between 2008 and 2021

Living debt of the City of Olivares in thousands of euros according to data from the Ministry of Finance and Public Service.

Local festivals

• Since 2003 a baroque fair has been held in Olivares, with costumes and shopkeepers inspired by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is a medieval market that evokes the era of maximum splendor of the villa, remembracing the Guzmanes, Don Gaspar de Guzmán and Pimentel, the Count-Duque de Olivares, Prime Minister of King Felipe IV.

The Olivares Barroco market was developed thanks to an entrepreneurial initiative of the Olivares City Council to improve local policies. Since 2003 it has been held every year at the end of spring, in the month of May. The Plaza de España de Olivares, restored in 2011, is the central axis of the market, the square and the surrounding streets become a complex of the century XVII with artisans and taverns, its peculiar program stands out with workshops, theaters, concerts, costumes, a careful staging and historical recreation of the time. The different editions of this Baroque market are benchmarks for the dissemination of tourism, where the main outstanding idea is the return to the Spanish golden age and the artistic heritage of Olivares. The market receives approximately 50,000 visits in less than 4 days.

In 2021, the Olivares Historic-Artistic Complex celebrated its 50th anniversary as an Asset of Cultural Interest. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it could not be held, but the Olivares City Council proposed alternative actions with plays, exhibitions and conferences, all under strict compliance with the rules.

In 2022, the Olivares City Council continues working on the preparation and return to normality to celebrate the XIX Edition "Olivares Barroco 2022" from May 19 to 22.

• Feria y Fiestas en Honor a la Patrona de Olivares, Ntra. Lady of the Snows. After a processional exit through the main streets of the municipality, the party moves to the fairgrounds, where the residents of Olivares enjoy the fair in their houses.

The origin of the Olivares fair is one of the oldest in the province of Seville, its beginning dates back to the XIX century with the Cattle Fair, which, due to the agricultural wealth that the municipality possessed, acquired great importance at the regional level. At first, it was held in the town square but by the time the XX century moved to the first fairground, which today is Virgen de las Nieves street. Since 1981 it has been held in the current fairgrounds, which is located at the beginning of the municipality of Olivares, following the road to Sanlúcar La Mayor. The patron saint festivities are organized around August 5, the day of the Virgin, with an initial procession in honor of the patron saint, Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, after the procession, in the fairgrounds there are more than thirty booths installed by the residents of the municipality belonging to associations, brotherhoods and individuals.

In 2021, the Olivares town hall launched an alternative program to the popular patron saint festivities of Olivares, since due to the Covid-19 pandemic it could not be celebrated in the traditional way. The festivities included a parade and concert by the Santa María de las Nieves Philharmonic and Cultural Association, breakfasts, shows, workshops and wine tasting, all outdoor activities and following the protocol against Covid-19.

• The festival of San Sebastian, the patron of Olivares, is celebrated every 20th of January with a triduo (joint of prayers or religious celebrations that lasts three days and is proper to the Catholic Church) once the triduo is finished in homage to the pattern, a traditional burning of bengalas is carried out in the Plaza de España.

OTHER FESTIVITIES OF INTEREST

• His two sisterhoods participate in Holy Week

- The Brotherhood of Veracruz on Holy Thursday.

- The Brotherhood of Solitude on Good Friday.

• Pilgrimage to the Romery of El Rocío.

• Feast of San Blas: Blessing of bread.

• Celebration of the Corpus Christi.

Featured Characters

Gaspar de Guzmán and Pimentel Ribera y Velasco de Tovar, known as the Count-Duke of Olivares

Count-Duke of Olivares