| Jerez de la Frontera | |||
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| — Municipality — | |||
| Plaza de la Yerba | |||
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| Location of Jerez de la Frontera within Cádiz province | |||
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Jerez de la Frontera
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Jerez de la Frontera
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Spain | ||
| Autonomous community | Andalusia | ||
| Province | Cádiz | ||
| Comarca | Campiña de Jerez | ||
| Judicial district | Jerez de la Frontera | ||
| Commonwealth | Municipios de la Bahía de Cádiz | ||
| Government | |||
| • Alcalde | María José García-Pelayo Jurado (PP) | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 1,188.23 km2 (458.8 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 56 m (184 ft) | ||
| Population (2010) | |||
| • Total | 208,896 | ||
| • Density | 175.8/km2 (455.3/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym | Jerezanos | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 11401 – 11409 | ||
| Official language(s) | spanish | ||
| Website | Official website | ||
Jerez de la Frontera is a municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, (Andalucía in Spanish) in southwestern Spain, situated midway between the sea and the mountains. As of 2010[update], the city, the largest in the province, had 208,896 inhabitants; it is the fifth largest in Andalusia. It has become the transportation and communications hub of the province, surpassing even Cádiz, the provincial capital, in economic activity. Jerez de la Frontera is also, in terms of land area, the largest municipality in the province, and its sprawling outlying areas are a fertile zone for agriculture. There are also many cattle ranches and horse-breeding operations, as well as a world-renowned wine industry.
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The city of Jerez is governed by the ayuntamiento (municipality) of Jerez, whose representatives, as in other towns in Spain, are elected every four years by universal suffrage for all citizens older than 18 years of age. The body is chaired by the mayor of Jerez.
The economy of Jerez has traditionally been centered on the wine industry, with exports of sherry worldwide. Because it lacks the civil service that other cities enjoy, Jerez has based its economy on industry. The cultivation of fruits, grains, and vegetables and horse and cattle husbandry has also been important to the local economy.
After the wine crisis in the 1990s, the city is now seeking to expand its industrial base. Tourism has been successfully promoted. The city's strong identity as a center for wine, flamenco, and horses, its popular festivals, MotoGP hosting and its historical heritage have contributed to this success.
The city is the home of Jerez Airport and has also been positioning itself as a logistics hub for western Andalucia, through the integration between the airport, the rail system and nearby ports.
Jerez de la Frontera is in an area of Mediterranean climate with oceanic influences, characterized by mild and wet winter and dry hot summer. The average annual temperature is 17.7 °C (64 °F). Winters are mild, and January is the coldest month, with 5.4 °C (42 °F). Summers are very hot, August has the highest average of 33.1 °C (91.6 °F) and every year exceeded 38 °C (100 °F) on several occasions. The average annual precipitation are 598 mm per year, concentrated in the months of October through April. December is the wettest month with 109 mm. There are 54 rainy days per year, 137 clear days, 2,966 hours of sunshine a year, a few days of frost and no snow.
| Climate data for Cádiz and Jerez de la Frontera (Airport) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 15.9 (60.6) |
17.5 (63.5) |
20.2 (68.4) |
21.5 (70.7) |
24.6 (76.3) |
28.8 (83.8) |
33.0 (91.4) |
33.1 (91.6) |
30.2 (86.4) |
25.0 (77.0) |
20.1 (68.2) |
16.8 (62.2) |
23.9 (75.0) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 10.7 (51.3) |
12.0 (53.6) |
14.0 (57.2) |
15.4 (59.7) |
18.4 (65.1) |
22.0 (71.6) |
25.5 (77.9) |
25.7 (78.3) |
23.5 (74.3) |
19.1 (66.4) |
14.7 (58.5) |
11.9 (53.4) |
17.7 (63.9) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 5.4 (41.7) |
6.6 (43.9) |
7.7 (45.9) |
9.4 (48.9) |
12.1 (53.8) |
15.3 (59.5) |
18.0 (64.4) |
18.4 (65.1) |
16.8 (62.2) |
13.3 (55.9) |
9.2 (48.6) |
7.1 (44.8) |
11.6 (52.9) |
| Precipitation cm (inches) | 8.9 (3.5) |
6.0 (2.36) |
4.2 (1.65) |
5.4 (2.13) |
3.7 (1.46) |
1.3 (0.51) |
0.2 (0.08) |
0.6 (0.24) |
2.2 (0.87) |
6.7 (2.64) |
8.6 (3.39) |
10.9 (4.29) |
59.8 (23.54) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 54 |
| Source: Agencia Estatal de Meteorología[1] | |||||||||||||
Its name goes back to the existence of Phoenician Xera, Sèrès, then Romanized under the name of Ceret; the location of this settlement, however, remains unknown.
The classical Latin name of Asta Regia, unrelated to its present name, used to refer to an ancient city now found within Mesas de Asta, a rural district approximately 11 km (6.84 mi). from the center of Jerez.
The current Castilian name came by way of the Arabic name شريش Sherish.[2] In former times, during the Muslim occupation of Iberia, it was called Xerez or Xeres. The name of the famous fortified wine, sherry, which originated here (although some argue that it originated in Shiraz, Persia), is an adaptation of the city's Arabic name, which is pronounced Sherish. Frontera in its name refers to being a Spanish frontier, located on the border between the Moorish and Christian regions of Spain during that period, a regular host to skirmishes and clashes between the two regions. Over two centuries later, after the conquest of Granada in 1492, Xerez definitely lost its status as a frontier city, but did not lose that designation.
When the Kingdom of Castile took Jerez on October 9, 1264, following the name given by the Muslims to the city in the period known as the Reconquista, the city was then called Xerez in medieval Castilian, transcribing the consonant /ʃ/ (like the English sh) with the letter ‹x›, as was the rule at the time. In the 16th century, it the consonant /ʃ/ was starting to change into the consonant /x/, with the corresponding spelling of Jerez.
The old spelling "Xerez" was the name given to the city in several foreign languages until very recently, and today continues to influence the name given to sherry: Portuguese Xerez [ʃəˈɾɛʃ], Catalan Xerès [ʃəˈɾɛs], English sherry /ˈʃɛrɪ/, French Xérès [ɡzeʁɛs], Italian Xeres [ˈksɛɾes]. The city's main football team continues to use the old spelling, Xerez.
There are signs of human presence in the area from the upper Neolithic, and Jerèz de la Frontera has been inhabited by humans since at least the Copper or Neolithic Age, but the identity of the first natives remains unclear. The first major protohistoric settlement in the area (around the third millennium BC) is attributed to the Tartessians.
Later it was a Roman city, under the name of Asta Regia. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, it was ruled by the Vandals and the Visigoths, until it was conquered by the Arabs in 711. In the 11th century it was shortly the seat of an independent taifa. Some years later it was united to Arcos by 'Abdun ibn Muhammad, who ruled both c. 1040-1053. In 1053 it was annexed to Seville. From 1145 to 1147 the region of Arcos and Jerez was briefly an emirate under dependency of Granada, led by Abu'l-Qasim Ahyal. Later the city was conquered by the Almohads. In the 12th and 13th centuries Jerez underwent a period of great development, building its defense system and setting the current street layout of the old town.
In 1231 the Battle of Jerez took place within the town's vicinity, in which the Christian troops under the command of Álvaro Pérez de Castro, lord of the House of Castro and grandson of Alfonso VII, king of Castile and León, defeated the troops of the Emir Ibn Hud, despite the numerical superiority of the latter. The city was conquered by Castile in 1264. The Discovery of America and the conquest of Granada, in 1492, made Jerez one of the most prosperous cities of Andalusia through trade and its proximity to the ports of Seville and Cadiz. Despite the social, economic and political decadence that occurred in the seventeenth century, towards the end of the Habsburg rule, the city managed to maintain a reasonable pace of development, becoming world wide famous for its wine industry.
Jerez is known as the capital of sherry wine, horsemanship, and flamenco dancing. It is the home of the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, a riding school comparable to the world-famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Jerez, the city where flamenco singing began, is also proud of its Andalusian Centre of Flamenco.
There are two museums of note: the Jerez Archaeological Museum and the Atalaya Watch Museum (also known as "Palace of Time").
The old quarter of Jerez, dating from medieval times, has been named an "Artistic Historic Complex". The Easter week celebrations in Jerez are of "National Touristic Interest", and its remarkable Horse Fair (Feria del Caballo) in May is an event of "International Touristic Interest".
Jerez is present in most important national competitions. Clubs in different sport are include:
Jerez is also the site of Circuito de Jerez, formerly called the Circuito Permanente de Jerez, where the annual Motorcycle Grand Prix is contested. The race course is a prime destination for Formula One teams who wish to perform off-season testing; it also hosted the highly controversial 1997 European Grand Prix.
There are 76 elementary schools, 41 secondary schools, 12 adult education centers and 10 public libraries in the city of Jerez.
The University of Cádiz, the provincial university, has a campus in Jerez.
The city is also home to a member of the Official School of Languages (Escuela Oficial de Idiomas) and a center of the National Distance Education University (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, UNED).
According to official population data from INE, the municipality of Jerez had 205,364[3] inhabitants as of January 1, 2008. This makes Jerez the most populous city in the province, fifth in Andalusia, and 27th in Spain.
Jerez de la Frontera is twinned with:
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