Calatañazor

Calatañazor is a small municipality ( municipio ) with only 57 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2013) in the Spanish province of Soria in the autonomous community of Castile -Leon. The place was as a cultural ( Bien de Interès Cultural ) recognized in the category Conjunto histórico - artístico.

Location

Calatañazor is above the river valley of the Rio Milanos at an altitude of about 1060 meters above sea level. inst. , the nearest large town, El Burgo de Osma, is about 33 km ( driving distance ) away in a southwesterly direction. The provincial capital Soria is about 36 km ( driving distance ) to the east. Also worth seeing is the a listed place Ucero (32 kilometers to the west ).

Demographics

In the second half of the 19th century Calatañazor always had between 400 and 600 inhabitants. Due to the mechanization of agriculture and the resulting lower demand for labor, the population has declined drastically since the mid-20th century. The municipality also includes the villages Abioncillo de Calatañazor and Aldehuela de Calatañazor each with only about ten people.

Economy

The small mountain village was and is influenced to a large extent on agriculture. In earlier times, the place served as a craft and market center for the - now long since abandoned - smaller farmsteads and hamlets around. Since the mid-20th century, tourism (hiking and apartments ) plays an important role as a source of income for the community.

History

Researchers suspect that a settlement of the Celtic tribe of the name Voluce Arevaci lay nearby. The Romans are said to have been in the area - many archaeological traces but there is no. From Visigothic time might come some graves in the flanks of Castle Hill. The present name Calatañazor (Arabic: Qal `at at - Nusur, قلعة النسور ) comes from the Islamic period and means" eagle castle "; He recalls the time of Islamic rule over much of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern part with a defeat of the general Almanzor in the summer of 1002 in the - finally came to an end battle of Calatañazor - historically not occupied. In the Middle Ages, the town belonged to the basic rule ( señorio ) of the Padilla family, probably in the 14-15. Century who built the castle. From the 17th to the early 19th century the island was under the control of the Dukes of Medinaceli.

Attractions

• From the largely built of unworked stones medieval castle (Castillo de Calatañazor ) are only ruins. Their most striking part is the keep ( torre de homenaje ) with its increased lying and accessible by way of ladders entrance. In the center of the outer wall is still a strangely shaped Gothic window. The castle was surrounded by a wall, of which some fragments have been preserved.

• The houses of the medieval-looking and surrounded by remnants of the former city wall map are grouped on a hill behind the castle. In the left -acting alleyways are quite a few - some standing on supports - half-timbered houses with Gefachfüllungen of clay mixed with small stones, which were later replaced sometimes with bricks.
• The parish church of Nuestra Señora del Castillo is a unadorned and overall seemingly fortified building dating from the 13th century, which is basically constructed of rubble. The Archivolts of the portal by a rectangular frame ( alfiz ) framed, which is so far rather rare to find in the north of Spain and ultimately borrowed from Islamic architecture. In three are by small columns with capitals separate arcades whose average closes up with a little multi -pass arc, and a small round window ( oculus ). The single, equipped with ribbed vaults church houses a Romanesque font, a late Gothic, revered as a curative screen image of the Cristo del Amparo in a Baroque altarpiece and a large altarpiece with several scenes of salvation.
• Located in the village stands on a stepped base, a court pillars ( dishtowels or picota ) from the 16th or 17th century. About a hexagonal shaft there is a outreaching in all four directions plate and a multi- tiered crown with a degree in the form of a ball. In addition there is an iron weather vane rotates.
• Only about 150 meters north of the town is the single-nave Romanesque hermitage Ermita de Soledad, from the built of precisely hewn stone apse and a portal still remain on the north side. The rest of the building was later - little loving - renewed from unworked rubble. Strangely spreads out over the two arches in the outer wall of the apse - these are likely to be walled up doors that have been opened to procession purposes in earlier time, and then bricked again. The brackets below the eaves show abstract decorative motifs and animal heads, etc.; a musician playing the harp ( King David? ) can be found among them.
• From another hermit Church ( Ermita San Juan Bautista ) is only half overgrown by plants Archivolts portal precisely hewn stones.
• The juniper forests ( sabinar de Calatañazor ) about two kilometers north- west of the town are protected. Some of the gnarled trees of Spanish juniper (Juniperus thurifera ) are several hundred years old.

Road in Calatañazor

Road in Calatañazor

Court pillar ( rollo )

Others

In 1965, Orson Welles made some scenes of his film Chimes at Midnight ( Falstaff German title - bells at midnight ) in Calatañazor.