Marchena (city)
| Marchena | |||
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| Municipality | |||
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 Marchena
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| Coordinates: 37°20′N 5°25′W / 37.333°N 5.417°W | |||
| Country | Spain | ||
| Community | Andalusia | ||
| Province | Seville | ||
| Comarca | La Campiña | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Juan Rodríguez Aguilera | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 378.25 km2 (146.04 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 150 m (490 ft) | ||
| Population (2009) | |||
| • Total | 19,984 | ||
| • Density | 53/km2 (140/sq mi) | ||
| Demonym(s) | Marcheneros | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 41620 | ||
| Website | Official website | ||
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Marchena is a city in the province of Seville, southern Spain, which counts with 19,984 inhabitants. Its Moorish name was Marshēnah (مَرْشَانَة) which means "of the olive trees". The city covers 379 square kilometers and had an estimated population of 19.940 in 2014.
Marchena is known as "the unknown beauty" due to the important cities next to this wonderful town, like Carmona, Osuna or Ecija.
It is located at an altitude of 150 meters and 64 kilometers from the provincial capital, Seville, in the region called La Campiña. It is known for its Holy Week and, especially, for its important monumental complex (declared a Historic-Artistic Site), where the church of San Juan Bautista and the Arch of the Rose (Puerta de Sevilla) stand out. In addition, the municipality is characterized by its link with flamenco and for being the birthplace of important artists such as Pepe Marchena or guitarist Melchor de Marchena.
Marchena's situation in the middle of the "La Campiña" of Seville, at a point of communication between the cities of Seville, Antequera and Ecija, brought a human population presence since prehistory. There existed a settlement of an old civilization called Tartessos, this settlement is denominated Montemolín, in the proximities of the present population. There are also remains that testify Roman villagers in this area. There are also no data on a Roman colony called Martia, as local historians have stated. [1]
In Roman time it had to be a farm (town) of sparsely populated population. There are testimonies of settlers in the Visigothic period, but it is not until the Islamic dominion when the city conformed with the structure that at the moment can be distinguished. It was denominated by the Muslims like Marsen'ah due to the great amount of olive trees that surrounded the population, reached a great urban development and was walled (centuries XI-XII).
It passed into Christian hands in the middle of the thirteenth century, during the reign of Ferdinand III of Castile, becoming a town of Realengo, until during the reign of Ferdinand IV of Castile in 1309, was granted to Fernando Ponce de Leon, great-grandson Of the king Alfonso IX of León, although before had belonged to Alonso Pérez de Guzmán, famous defender of the city of Tarifa. For several centuries the lordship of Marchena was in the hands of the family Ponce de León, from which comes the house of Arcos.
In 1367 Juan Ponce de León, Lord of Marchena, was executed in Seville together with the major admiral of the Egidio Boccanegra Sea, Template: Harvnp and in 1368, a year later, Marchena and his lands were sacked and devastated by King Muhammed V Of Granada, ally of the king Pedro I of Castile, that also demolished the walls of the villa.Template: Harvnp
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