Aracena

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Aracena

Location in Andalusia

Coordinates: 37°53′28″N 6°33′40″W / 37.89111°N 6.56111°W

Country

Spain

Andalusia

Government

• Mayor

Manuel Guerra González

Area

• Total

184 km² (71 sq mi)

Population (2014)

• Total

7,859

• Density

43/km² (110/sq mi)

Time zone

CET (UTC+1)

• Summer (DST)

CEST (UTC+2)

Website

Official website

Aracena (Spanish pronunciation: [aɾaˈθena]) is a town and municipality located in the province of Huelva, south-western Spain. As of 2012^[update], the city has a population of 7,814 inhabitants. The town gives its name to the Sierra de Aracena, part of the Sierra Morena system.

Aracena is the largest town in the Parque Natural Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche. In 2006, Aracena was named a Tourist Municipality of Andalucía and became the first town in the province of Huelva to achieve this status.

Prominent attractions in the town include Aracena Castle and the Priory Church, together known as the Castillo-Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, built between the 13th and 15th centuries over the ruins of an earlier castle. The oldest sections are of late Gothic-Mudéjar style.

Aracena Castle was erected in the thirteenth century, during the Islamic period, and was itself built on the site of an ancient Moorish castle. The walled enclosure was partitioned inside, with the tower of homage, or castle keep, defending the barrier that divided its interior. The population of Aracena settled around this structure, giving rise to the current urban landscape. During the late Middle and Modern Ages, Aracena continued growing from the Cerro del Castillo [Castle Hill] into the valley, first as unattached land dependent on Seville and later, in the seventeenth century, as a feudal estate under the jurisdiction of the Count-Duke of Olivares. Still later, it was under the Count of Altamira, who carried the title of Prince of Aracena.

The fortress consists of the alcazaba, or citadel, with its watch tower, cistern and walls; these are flanked by other towers, as well as a fence line that, in its interior, once accommodated medieval living quarters.

When Aracena was ceded by the Crown of Castile to the Knights Templar, that Order authorized the raising of the current Moorish-style church, noted for the glazed clay sculptures of Pedro Vazquez and which takes its name from the local patron saint, Nuestra Señora del Mayor Dolor [Our Lady of the Greatest Suffering].

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Wikipedia