| Antequera | |||
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Antequera
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Antequera
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Spain | ||
| Autonomous community | Andalusia | ||
| Province | Málaga | ||
| Comarca | Comarca de Antequera | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Ricardo Millán Gómez (PSOE) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 814 km2 (314.3 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 575 m (1,886 ft) | ||
| Population (2009) | |||
| • Total | 45,168 | ||
| • Density | 55.5/km2 (143.7/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym | Antequeranos | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 29200 | ||
| Dialing code | 95 | ||
| Official language(s) | Spanish | ||
| Website | Official website | ||
Antequera is a city and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is known as "the heart of Andalusia" (el corazón de Andalucía) because of its central location among Málaga, Granada, Córdoba, and Seville. It is noted for two large Bronze Age dolmens.
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Antequera lies 47 km north of the city of Málaga on the A45 road, at the foot of the mountain ranges of El Torcal and Sierra de la Chimenea, 575 m above mean sea level. It overlooks the fertile valley bounded to the south by the Sierra de los Torcales, and to the north by the river Guadalhorce. It occupies a commanding position. At 817 km², the municipality is the largest, in terms of area, in the province of Málaga and one of the largest in Spain. The population is 41,197 (2002 census).
The saltwater lagoon Fuente de Piedra, which is one of the few nesting places of the Greater Flamingo in Europe, and the limestone rock formation of the Torcal, a nature reserve and popular spot for climbers, are nearby. Across the Guadalhorce is Peña de los Enamorados, ("The Lovers' Rock"); named after the legend of two young Moorish lovers from rival clans who threw themselves from the rock while being pursued by the girl's father and his men. This romantic legend was adapted by Robert Southey. In his Laila and Manuel the lovers were a Muslim girl and her father's Christian slave.
On the northern outskirts of the city there are two Bronze Age burial mounds (barrows or dolmens) the Dólmen de Menga[1] and Dólmen de Viera, dating from the 3rd millennium BC. They are the largest such structures in Europe. The larger one, Dólmen de Menga, is twenty-five metres in diameter and four metres high, and was built with thirty-two megaliths, the largest weighing about 180 tonnes. After completion of the chamber (which probably served as a grave for the ruling families) and the path leading into the center, the stone structure was covered with earth and built up into the hill that can be seen today. When the grave was opened and examined in the 19th century, archaeologists found the skeletons of several hundred people inside. The Dólmen del Romeral, which dates from the early 2nd millennium (about 1800 BC), is outside the city. A large number of smaller stones were used in its construction. Los Silillos, a significant Bronze Age prehistoric village was uncovered several miles north of Antequera.[2]
From the 7th century BC, the region was settled by the Iberians, whose cultural and economic contacts with the Phoenicians and Greeks are demonstrated by many archaeological discoveries. In the middle of the 1st millennium BC, the Iberians mingled with wandering Celts (see Celtiberians) and with the civilization of Tartessos of southern Spain.
In the last quarter of the 1st millennium BCE, the Iberian peninsula became part of the Roman Empire. The people quickly adopted Roman culture and the Latin language, and the transition to Roman rule was largely peaceful. As in many other places in Andalusia, the current city plan and the name originate from when Spain was part of the Roman Empire; the Latin name of the city was Antikaria. Under the Romans, the city continued to be an important commercial center, especially known for the quality of its olive oil.
Starting from the 5th century AD, the Romans were increasingly displaced by people crossing the Pyrenees, including Vandals, Alans, and Suebi. In 554 a Roman expedition sent by emperor Justinian retook the area, but they were in turn defeated by the Visigoths in 624.
In the year 711 a tribe of Berbers out of North Africa (Moors) invaded Spain and conquered Antikaria around 716, renaming it Medina Antaquira.
The Moorish state was known for its religious tolerance, and lasted until 1212, when a coalition of Christian kings drove them from Central Spain in the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Over the next few years the dominant Almohad dynasty was defeated and Moorish Al-Andalus greatly reduced in strength. Medina Antaquira, which at that time had a population of about 2,600, became one of the northern cities of the remaining Nasrid kingdom of Granada and an important border town. To defend against the Catholic Spanish troops from the northern kingdoms, fortifications were built, and a castle (alcazaba) was erected overlooking the city.
For about two hundred years, Medina Antaquira was repeatedly attacked by Christian kings during the Reconquista, and on September 16, 1410 an army led by Ferdinand I of Aragon conquered the city. This gave Ferdinand, who was crowned King of Aragon in 1412, the title "Ferdinand of Antequera" (Don Fernando de Antequera), and the main street still carries his name: Calle Infante Don Fernando.
After Antequera became part of the Kingdom of Castile, the Muslims were driven out. The city became a Catholic fortress against the Muslim Nasrid kingdom of Granada, and a base for continuing conquest. After Granada, the last Moorish city, capitulated in 1492, Antequera began to recover from the centuries of fighting, and the population increased from 2,000 to almost 15,000 in twenty years.
Antequera became an important commercial town at the crossroads between Málaga to the south, Granada to the east, Córdoba to the north and Seville to the west. Because of its location, its flourishing agriculture, and the work of its craftsmen, all contributing to the cultural growth of the city, Antequera was called the "Heart of Andalusia" by the early 16th century. During this time the townscape also changed. Mosques and houses were torn down, and new churches and houses built in their place. The oldest church in Antequera, the late Gothic Iglesia San Francisco, was built around the year 1500.
In 1504, the humanist university of the Real Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor was founded; it became a meeting place for important writers and scholars of the Spanish Renaissance. A school of poets arose during the 16th century that included Pedro Espinosa, Luis Martín de la Plaza and Cristobalina Fernández de Alarcón. A school of sculpture produced artists who were mainly employed on the many churches built, and who were in demand in Seville, Málaga and Córdoba and the surrounding areas. The newly-built churches included San Sebastián in the city center and the largest and most splendid of the city, Real Colegiata de Santa María, with its richly decorated mannerist façade.
Still more churches and convents were built into the 18th century (today there are 32 in the city altogether), as were palaces for the members of the aristocracy and the wealthier citizens in the Spanish Baroque style.
Antequera's prosperity slowly came to a close at the end of the 17th century and the beginning of the 18th. Spain had to accept the loss of its American colonies and lost a number of crucial military conflicts in Europe. That led to a deep economic crisis, which in some parts of the country led people to turn to bartering. Church, aristocracy and the upper middle class — the great landowners — who had been the clients and sponsors of the creative arts, lost most of their fortunes and could not afford to build more churches or palaces.
Starting from the mid-18th century, Spain underwent a series of reforms, in particular a land reform and the reduction of the power of the Church (the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767) that produced a slow economic recovery. In Antequera, textile production became the main industry. In 1804, yellow fever caused a setback, as well as the Napoleonic wars which broke out shortly after. In the early 20th century, Antequera's textile industry suffered another serious crisis.
It was only in the 1960s, when the nearby Costa del Sol developed into an international tourist hotspot, that Antequera experienced another economic upswing. Today the city is an important tourist and cultural center, not only on a regional scale.
The city's museums house about 80% of all the art treasures in the province of Málaga, which makes it one of the cultural centers of Andalusia.
In the eastern suburbs there is one of the largest burial mounds in Spain, dating from the Bronze Age, and with subterranean chambers excavated to a depth of c. 20 m.
Historically, the region's economy was based on the production and processing of agricultural products (olives, grain, and wool), as well as furniture manufacturing. Today, tourism is the main industry, and there are an increasing number of international visitors.
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