Arcos de la Frontera

Arcos de la Frontera
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Arcos_de_la_Frontera".

This article is about a Spanish town. For other uses, see Arcos (disambiguation).

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Arcos de la Frontera


	Coat of Arms

Location

Location of Arcos de la Frontera

Coordinates :
Time zone :

General information

Native name

Arcos de la Frontera (Spanish)

Spanish name

Arcos de la Frontera

Postal code

11630

Website

http://www.arcosdelafrontera.es/

Administration

Country

Spain

Autonomous Community

Andalusia

Province

Cádiz

Comarca

Sierra de Cádiz

Mayor

Josefa Caro Gamaza (PSOE)

Geography

Land Area

528 km²

Altitude

185 m AMSL

Population

Population

29.905 (2007)

Density

55,7 hab./km² (PD/sqmi) (2007)

Arcos de la Frontera

Another view of Arcos de la Frontera

Arcos de la Frontera is a town in the province of Cádiz in southern Spain. It is located on the eastern bank of the Guadalete river, which flows to the Bay of Cadiz. The town commands a fine vista atop a sandstone ridge, from which the peak of San Cristobal and the Guadalete Valley can be seen. The town gained its name by being the frontier of Spain's 13th century battle with the Moors. ¹

1 History
2 Geographic limits
3 Demographics
4 Monuments
5 References
6 External links

History

There is local evidence that Stone Age cave-dwellers used rocks to form living chambers. Roman ruins also exist in the area. ¹

Arcos became an independent Moorish taifa in 1011 during the protracted collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba. Arcos was associated with the Jerez by Aben Jairuan who ruled c. 1040-1053. The region was overtaken by the Almoravid dynasty in 1091. From 1145 to 1147 the region of Arcos and Jerez was briefly a taifa under dependency of Grenada, led by Aben Garrum.

The town was a bulwark of Christianity after Alfonso the Wise of Castile (1252-1284) expelled the Moors. He constructed a Gothic cathedral which remains on its high ridge. It is famed for its ten bells, which tolled throughout the war with the Moors. Several Moorish banners were taken in the nearby battle of Zahara and have been on display in a church in Arcos since 1483.¹

The ruined citadel, the theatre, and the palace of the dukes of Arcos are other noteworthy buildings.¹

Geographic limits

To the North: Espera and Bornos.
To the South: San José del Valle and Algar.
To the East: Prado del Rey and El Bosque.
To the West: Jerez de la Frontera.

Demographics

Demographic evolution of Arcos de la Frontera between 1999 and 2005
1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
27,948	27,979	28,104	28,369	28,735	29,079	29,420

Source: INE (Spain)

Monuments

Castillo de Arcos (fifteenth-century castle)
Iglesia Parroquial de Santa María de la Asunción (church built between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries)
Convento de San Agustín (convent built between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries)
Iglesia de San Pedro (church built between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries)
Ayuntamiento (seventeenth-century city hall)
Iglesia de San Francisco (church built between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries))
Iglesia de la Caridad (church built between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries))

References

View from balcony

M. Mancheiio y Olivares, Galeria de Arcobricenses illustres (Arcos, 1892)
M. Mancheiio y Olivares, Riqueza y culture de Arcos de la Frontera (Arcos, 1898)