Pastrana

Pastrana is a Spanish municipality and town in the south of the province of Guadalajara, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha. The term has a population of 885 inhabitants (INE 2017). Located in the region of La Alcarria, the town had its heyday between the XVI and XVII. It was declared a historical-artistic complex in 1966.

The collegiate church, the Ducal Palace where the princess of Éboli lived, the Flemish tapestries of Alfonso V, the fountain of the four spouts and the convents founded by Santa Teresa de Jesús stand out; all this configures a medieval-renaissance atmosphere between memories and legends that earned it the qualification of "snapshot of past time".

Geography

Location

The municipality is located in the region of La Alcarria. The land where the municipality is located is described in the twelfth volume of the Geographical-statistical-historical dictionary of Spain and its overseas possessions by Pascual Madoz as follows:

The field For the most part it is broken, with several cords of hills and small valleys; it fertilizes several streams of which are the main ones the so-called Arlas and two that sprout in the hill where the v. is located and pass immediately to it: there is a good oak forest that has a place 2,208 fan.

(Madoz, 1849, p. 717)

Climate

Pastrana has a Mediterranean climate Csa (temperate with hot and dry summer) according to the Köppen climate classification.

Average climatic parameters of Pastrana in the period 1981-2003
Month	Ene.	Feb.	Mar.	Open up.	May.	Jun.	Jul.	Ago.	Sep.	Oct.	Nov.	Dec.	Annual
Average temperature (°C)	5.6	7.6	11.2	12.0	16.7	21.7	25.5	25.5	20.5	14.4	9.4	6.3	14.7
Total precipitation (mm)	47.2	31.9	29.0	57.7	59.0	31.9	8.9	8.7	35.8	70.6	56.2	52.7	489.5
Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment. Precipitation data for the period 1982-1996 and temperature for the period 1981-1996 in Pastrana October 9, 2012

History

Pastrana in the late 1970s

The Romans called it Paternina. The Roman praetor Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus destroyed the carpetan citadel during the conquest in 180 BC. One hundred years later it was rebuilt by order of the consul Paterno Paterniano, from whom it took the name of Paternina.

In the year 1174, King Alfonso VIII of Castile granted the then village of Pastrana, together with Zorita de los Canes, to the Order of Calatrava, from whom he would obtain important privileges. Later, King Enrique II of Castile, at the proposal of the Calatravian master, granted him the privilege of villazgo in 1369. Pastrana grew from then on to the detriment of Zorita.

In 1541, with strong opposition from the pastraneros who did not want to lose the royal status, he bought the town from the Crown Ana de la Cerda, grandmother of the famous Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda (Princess of Éboli), who married Ruy Gómez de Silva, royal secretary of Felipe II, who obtained from the king the titles of Dukes of Pastrana and Princes of Éboli.

With the duchy began a period of splendor for Pastrana. The dukes founded the collegiate church and, helping Saint Teresa de Jesús, two convents of Discalced Carmelites in 1569. In 1573 Duke Ruy Gómez died, and his widow, the princess of Éboli, decided to become a nun in La Concepción, causing numerous scandals. in the convent, a reason that prompted Teresa de Jesús to take the nuns from the town.

In July 1579, when King Philip II learned of the intrigues of the princess of Éboli and her secretary Antonio Pérez, he ordered the imprisonment of Ana de Mendoza. The princess of Éboli remained locked up for her last years in her own Ducal Palace until her death in 1592.

In the 18th century the dukes moved their residence to Madrid, thus beginning the decline of the town. In the middle of the XIX century, the place had a registered population of 2,193 inhabitants and a total of 514 houses.

In the words of the writer Camilo José Cela in his work Journey to the Alcarria (1948):

...The next morning when the traveller went to the Plaza de la Hora and went in for real use, in Pastrana, the first sensation he had was to meet a medieval city, a large medieval city.

Shield of Pastrana

Shield divided vertically, on the left side and on a blue background, a silver lateral band, two fleurs-de-lis and a capital P in sable, lined gules. On the left side a fleur delisada cross of gules, a gold sword, and a skull. At the bell, the closed royal crown, typical of the legally established monarchical regime. His romantic legend says: "Pastrana will die fighting for the cross".

Monuments

Plaza de la Hora and Palacio Ducal de Pastrana.

Hermitage of the Sacred Heart of Mary, at the top of the Matea.

• Colegiata de Pastrana, a baroque altarpiece, statues and shields. Declared a good cultural interest
• Fountain of the Four Caños, typical atmosphere of cult ruralism. Built in 1588.
• Ducal Palace, currently owned by the University of Alcalá.
• Convent of Saint Joseph, who founded Saint Teresa. The town is part of the footsteps of Santa Teresa, pilgrimage route, tourist, cultural and heritage that brings together the seventeen cities where St. Teresa of Jesus left her "huella" in the form of foundations. The route does not have an established order or limited time as each pilgrim or visitor can perform it as and as long as you want.
• Convent of Saint Peter, where Saint John of the Cross founded the renovated Carmelites: museums and mystical memories.
• Convent of San Francisco, with facade and brick cloister.
• Plaza del Dean, a backdrop of historic buildings, memory of the greatness of past times.
• Convent of the Francisca Conception
• Calle de la Palma, with its palaces of the Inquisition, of the Burgos, of the Calatravo knights and the Jewish synagogue.
• Casa de Moratín, where he lived long seasons Leandro Fernández de Moratín the author of The yes of the girls.
• Plaza de la Hora, where you will find the Ducal Palace.
• Plaza de Toros, one of the oldest in the province of Guadalajara, located between the old houses of the Albaicín.
• Remedies hermitage, especially protected.

Museums

• The Parroquial Museum, in the Colegiata, with a collection of flamenco tapestries of the centuryXV.
• The Carmelite Museum, in the Convent of Carmen, founded by St. Theresa of Jesus: painting, sculpture, books, Remembrances.
• The Natural History Museum, on another floor of the convent. Animals designed by Franciscan missionaries from the Philippines and the Far East.

Topographical list of Felipe II

Philip II, in order to obtain detailed information on all the towns and villages under his mandate, ordered the preparation of a questionnaire that had to be answered in all the councils. With this objective, in 1575, he sent a questionnaire with 59 questions to the magistrates and governors of the kingdom, along with some mandatory instructions. In these, their distribution was ordered to all places under their jurisdiction, where they had to appoint "two intelligent and curious people", residents of the town, who would be in charge of making "relationship of them, as complete and true as possible". The lack of response and the remission of incomplete questionnaires forced the king to send, three years later, a second interrogation, this time with 45 questions, and a new instruction in which localities that had answered previously were exempted from declaration.

Festivities and fairs

• San Antón. 17 January. After the blessing of the animals in the hermitage, they eat chorizos, oranges and the typical sweets “Carities”.
• San Sebastian. 20th January Patronial Festival in which the procession of the Holy is celebrated and on the eve of which the Round of the Mozos is celebrated, round in which traditional jotas and followers are sung.
• Castilla-La Mancha Poultry Fair. The most important fair in the poultry sector in Spain, where products and machinery related to the sector are exposed. It is always celebrated in the second week of March. Honey of the Alcarria.
• Holy Week. Interesting parades and processions such as the Passes, the Silence and the Calvary.
• Fiesta de Los Mayos. April 30th. Canto de la Rondalla de Pastrana de los mayos y jotas y seguidillas tradicionales con cast de dulces y limonada en la plaza de La Iglesia, que continua con la visita a las cruzs de lumber engalanadas ubicados en distintas rincones de la local que, following the tradition, are adorned with laureles and flowers.
• Corpus Christi. Procession and parade with the banners of all the sisterhoods of the villa.
• Ducal Festival of Pastrana. Mid-July. Cultural festival that recreates the Golden Age in the ducal villa.
• Virgin of the Assumption. August 15th. Bulls, ball, rocks and verbs, procession and mass. The bulls, the last day, go into the Plaza de la Hora in caldereta
• St. Theresa of Jesus. October 15th. Patronal party. Mass and procession in honor of the patron of the villa.

Notable people