Saucedilla

Saucedilla

St John the Baptist´s church of Saucedilla, with the Sierra de Gredos snow-covered behind

Coat of arms
Saucedilla

Location in Spain

Coordinates: ES 39°51′08.46″N 5°40′40.82″W / 39.8523500°N 5.6780056°W / 39.8523500; -5.6780056
Country Spain
Autonomous community Extremadura
Province Cáceres
Comarca Campo Arañuelo
Municipality Saucedilla
Government
 • Mayor Urbano García Díaz (Independent)
Area
 • Total 60 km2 (20 sq mi)
Elevation 258 m (846 ft)
Population (2010)
 • Total 859
 • Density 12.2/km2 (32/sq mi)
Demonym(s) naveros
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Website http://www.saucedilla.es

(This is a summary and approximate translation of the article of Spanish Wikipedia)

Saucedilla[1] is a municipality located in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain. According to the 2010 census (INE), it has a population of 859 inhabitants. It belongs to the Campo Arañuelo County (Comarca del Campo Arañuelo), the capital of which is Navalmoral de la Mata.

Geography and nature

The situation of Saucedilla is impressive. In the north, the vast bulk of the Sierra de Gredos and the Tiétar River; in the south and west, the Miravete Sierra (Casas de Miravete), the Tagus River (Tajo in Spanish) and the Serrejón Sierra. The climate is Mediterranean. The village stands in an extensive plain of clayey grounds.

Dehesa

The municipality is surrounded by immense dehesas. A dehesa is a light wood of holm oaks (Quercus ilex) or cork oaks (Quercus suber). There, the breeding (animal husbandry) of cattle, sheep (for meat and wool), goats (for meat and cheese), and pigs, (Iberian pig) for meat like jamón ibérico (Iberian ham) and jamón serrano, are common. The breeding of fighting bulls (toro bravo in Spanish) is also widespread. There are some ganaderías of these wild bulls in Saucedilla (Cerro Alto, La Anguila) and others nearby villages like Casatejada or Toril.

Arrocampo Reservoir

Arrocampo Reservoir was created at 1976 to cool the turbines of the Almaraz nuclear power plant, which is near Saucedilla. With a system of dams and dikes, the water, taken from Tagus river, covers a circuit of 11 km which allow the cooling of these turbines.

Cañada Real Leonesa Occidental (main droveway of Western León)

Saucedilla was always a land of sheep. (Its coat of arms has a head of ram.) Extremadura (and Saucedilla), was a passing and transhumance land from the Middle Age. In medieval Spain, there were droving flocks of sheep on the largest scale, which were carefully organized by the system of the Mesta, crossing Extremadura and other Spanish regions. These long distance movements of sheep and cattle were made along drovers road called cañadas reales in Castile, cabañeras in Aragon, carreradas in Catalonia. The Cañada Real Leonesa Occidental cross Saucedilla by the south, near the cemetery. There is a country house, close the graveyard, for sheepherds and cowherds who cover the droveway still today.

Irrigated lands

  • Long ago, the economic activity of Saucedilla was based only on traditional agriculture. During centuries, there was a subsistence farming (dry farming), with also the breeding of sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. This agriculture has produced cereals for years and years in Saucedilla lands: wheat, barley, oats, rye, chickpeas, broad beans and root vegetables like turnips. Also olives and wine.
Purple swamphen, a characteristic wild bird of Arrocampo
  • The new irrigation farming: the Valdecañas Reservoir upon the Tagus (on southeast of the municipality), and the construction of a lot of channels, were made possible to irrigate many farmlands of Saucedilla. Fodder for cows and sheep, fruits like tomatoes, pimientos, bell peppers, peaches, etc., are produced thanks to the arrival of water in the 1980s.

Special Protection Areas

There are two Special Protection Areas (SPAs) in Saucedilla. They were created in 2005.

  • Arrocampo Reservoir Special Protection Area. The list of wild birds of Arrocampo Reservoir SPA is really very large.[2]
  • Lesser Kestrel Colonies of Saucedilla Special Protection Area: it is located on the vast bulk of the parish church of Saucedilla. 17 couples of kestrels (Falco naumanni) (cernícalos in Spanish) are registered in 2005 in the putlog holes of its walls.

Arrocampo Ornithological Park

There are two ornithological routes marked with wooden blazes and an Information Office near the municipal swimming pools in the south entry of the village.

  • Route 1: Arrocampo Reservoir Route. This route has 4 bird hides.
  • Route 2: Cerro Alto Route: 1 hide

Pictures of the area around Saucedilla

Demography

History

Francisco Tuttavilla, Duke of San Germán, Lord of Saucedilla (17th century)
  • Lord of Saucedilla: Francisco Tuttavilla.
  • Construction of the jurisdiction column (rollo jurisdiccional in Spanish).

Monuments

Pictures of the monuments

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Saucedilla.

References

  1. ↑ This article is a summary translation of the Spanish article of Spanish Wikipedia. The principal source is: SAUCEDILLA: santo y seña de un pueblo extremeño, by RUBIO MASA, Juan Carlos & RUBIO MASA, José Luis; Ed. Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Saucedilla, 1994
  2. ↑ (Arrocampo Reservoir Special Protected Area (eng.)):http://www.birdinginextremadura.com/birdex/live/rutas-recomendadas/embalse-arrocampo_en.html
  3. ↑ Juan Carlos Rubio Masa and José Luis Rubio Masa: Saucedilla, santo y seña de un pueblo extremeño, Navalmoral de la Mata, 1994; Ed. Exmo. Ayuntamiento de Saucedilla

Bibliography

External links

Coordinates: 39°51′N 5°40′W / 39.850°N 5.667°W / 39.850; -5.667

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, January 25, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.