Small Town Series: Spain
Updated: Jun 10, 2020
Good Morning :)
Here is another installment of the Small Town series. Today's country is Spain. All of these small towns have 50,000 inhabitants or less. I will be covering 10 different towns in today's post. I have included as much as I can about each small town.
Population numbers come from worldpopulationreview.com
Ibiza- 48,684 inhabitants
(while technically an island, I am classifying this as a small town because it is an island)
Ibiza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of Spain. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. Its largest settlements are Ibiza Town, Santa Eulària des Riu, and Sant Antoni de Portmany. Its highest point, called Sa Talaiassa (or Sa Talaia), is 475 metres (1,558 feet) above sea level.
Ibiza has become well known for its association with nightlife, electronic dance music, and for the summer club scene, all of which attract large numbers of tourists drawn to that type of holiday. Several years before 2010, the island's government and the Spanish Tourist Office had been working to promote more family-oriented tourism, with the police closing down clubs that played music at late night hours, but by 2010 this policy was reversed. Around 2015 it was resumed.
Ibiza is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Ibiza and the nearby island of Formentera to its south are called the Pine Islands, or "Pityuses".
Lucena- 42,248 inhabitants
Lucena is a Spanish city and municipality, in the province of Córdoba, autonomous community of Andalusia, 60 km southeast of Córdoba, 85 km north of Málaga, 140 km east of Sevilla, 105 km west of Granada, and 90 km southwest of Jaén, all very important Andalusian provincial capitals. Its circa 42,000 people makes Lucena the second largest municipality in the province after the provincial capital,Córdoba. It is located at the conjunction of important highways in the geographical center of Andalusia. People from Lucena are called lucentinos. The city was originally known as Eliossana, perhaps from the Hebrew אלי הושענא Elí hoshanna, "May God save us".
Andujar- 39,111 inhabitants
Andújar is a Spanish municipality in the province of Jaén, in Andalusia. The municipality is divided by the Guadalquivir River. The northern part of the municipality is where the Natural Park of the Sierra de Andújar is situated. To the south are agricultural fields and countryside. The city proper located on the right bank of the Guadalquivir and the Madrid-Córdoba railway. In the past, Andújar was widely known for its porous earthenware jars, called alcarrazas or botijos, which keep water cool in the hottest weather, and were manufactured from a whitish clay found in the neighbourhood.
Cieza- 35,200 inhabitants
Cieza is a town and municipality in Spain, in the autonomous community of Murcia. It is the capital of the Vega Alta comarca, an old form of provincial subdivision). The Segura River passes by the town.
Its economy is based on agriculture, mainly in the cultivation of peaches and olives, but industry is also important, since 4,000 people work in that sector. The public sector, transports and tourism are also very important in the local economy.
Populated since the Paleolithic Age, the area of Cieza is home to archaeological excavations in Almadenes, La Serreta, and Barranco de los Grajos.
There are also Iberian remains (found at Bolvax), as well as Roman, Visigothic, and Arabic deposits. The Arabs, who inhabited the area from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries, and who knew the area as Medina Siyâsa, left behind a mountain fortress. At the dig site of Medina Siyâsa, many decorative architectural elements have been found, such as engraved arches and porticos, and polychromed ceramics, glass, metals, etc. All these discoveries are kept in the museum of Siyâsa.
Oleiros- 33,443 inhabitants
Oleiros is a municipality of northwestern Spain in the province of A Coruña, in the autonomous community of Galicia. The whole municipality is basically a residential area and the vast majority of its residents commute on a daily basis to the neighbor city of A Coruña. Oleiros is the wealthiest municipality in Galicia, it enjoys very high living standards and is notably famous for its public gardens and for a very careful urban planning.The population is more dense in the four major urban areas of Oleiros: Santa Cristina-Perillo, Santa Cruz, Oleiros and Mera. The wealthiest inhabitants of Oleiros usually live in suburbs outside these urban areas. Many of these suburbs are composed of terraced or semi-detached houses. Some rural areas still exist all across the municipality.
Caravaca de la Cruz- 26,415 inhabitants
Caravaca de la Cruz (or simply and more commonly Caravaca) is a town and municipality of southeastern Spain in the region of Murcia, near the left bank of the River Argos, a tributary of the Segura. This city is the capital of the northwest Region of Murcia. In 1900 it had 15,846 inhabitants.
It is the Fifth Holy City of Catholic Christianity, having been granted the privilege to celebrate the jubilee year in perpetuity in 1998 by the then Pope John Paul II), along with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Camaleño (Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana). It celebrates its jubilee every seven years; the first being in 2003, when it was visited by the then Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. In 2010 the second jubilee was celebrated, and it surpassed the one million mark of visits received in 2003. Festivities of International Tourist Interest since 2004.
Caravaca is dominated by the medieval Santuario de la Vera Cruz (Sanctuary of True Cross), and contains several convents and a fine parish church, with a miraculous cross celebrated for its healing power, in honor of which a yearly festival is held on 3 May. Caravaca is home to many monuments and museums, many of which are important tourist attractions. The hills which extend to the north are rich in marble and iron. The town is a considerable industrial centre, with large iron-works, tanneries and paper, chocolate and oil factories.
Besides being known by the Christian relic, it also has a festival in honor of it, held between 1 and 5 May of each year, declared of International Tourist Interest in 2004. Along with processions and parades of Moors and Christians, the celebration of Horses of Wine is especially relevant, which now aspires to be the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
The Neoclassical painter Rafael Tejeo was born in Caravaca.
A gigantic archeological site was found in January 2009. It is composed of 1300 graves from 2400 to 1950 BC.
Candelaria- 24,319 inhabitants
Candelaria, also Villa Mariana de Candelaria, is a municipality and city in the eastern part of the island of Tenerife in the Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, Spain. The city is located on the coast, 17 km southwest of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the area is 49.18 km².
The town is noted by Catholics in Spain and Latin America as a place of veneration of the Virgin of Candelaria, the patron of the Canary Islands. The most prominent building is the Basilica of Candelaria, which includes the sculpture of the Virgin Mary (Virgin of Candelaria) and mural paintings. Also highlighted in the square, statues of the nine aboriginal kings of Tenerife.
In the times of the Guanches, the region was part of the menceyato, or kingdom, of Güímar. A cave is situated around Candelaria. The famous Festival de la Canción de Candelaria is one of the most important festivities on the island. It celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2005.
The town of Candelaria is surrounded by several prehistoric caves, where burials have been found containing mummies of the Guanches, whose burial process is very similar to the treatment of the pharaohs in Egypt.
In 1390, the current Candelaria was a solitary and deserted place where the shepherds would frenguent the Guanches of Güimar's menceyato (Güímar's pre-Hispanic kingdom). One evening, two natives who were leading his cattle, saw some goats come to the mouth of the ravine. The natives found, on a rock, the Holy Image of the Virgin of Candelaria (declared principal patron saint of the Canary Islands with posteriority).
The image was found in a beach near to Candelaria, initially the image was moved to the Cave of Chinguaro, which was the palace of the King of Güímar.
But later, the same guanches moved her to Cueva de Achbinico in Candelaria, and there it has been venerated since then. The aboriginals identified her with the appearance of their goddess Chaxiraxi (the mother of the gods), but the Christian conquerors insisted that the image was the Virgin Mary. Later a hermitage was constructed and later the Basilica was constructed to Santa Maria.
Montilla- 23,840 inhabitants
Montilla is a town and municipality of Spain, located in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It lies 32 miles south of the provincial capital, Córdoba.
Local folkloric figures are the witches "las Camachas", mentioned by Cervantes in the "Dialogue of the Dogs". The central portion of that work is set in a convent which today contains the town hall (in Spanish,ayuntamiento).
The olive oil of the district is abundant and good, and it is the peculiar flavour of the pale dry light wine of Montilla that gives its name to the sherry known as Amontillado. Montilla is the largest component of the Montilla-Moriles designated wine region. The large wineries Alvear and Gran Barquero are located in Montilla, which has an annual vendimia (wine-harvest) festival.
Paiporta- 23,519 inhabitants
Paiporta is a municipality in the comarca of Horta Sud in the Valencian Community, Spain.
Olesa de Montserrat- 23,301 inhabitants
Olesa de Montserrat is a municipality in the comarca of Baix Llobregat, in Catalonia, Spain.
Olesa de Montserrat is well known around the nearby places because of its olive oil and textile production, but especially because of its world-famous Passion play (La Passió d'Olesa), first documented in 1538. It achieved a world record in 1996, with 726 persons acting onstage at the same time.
Some of the main sites are Torre del Relotge, Monastery of Sant Pere Sacama and Rural chapel of Sant Salvador de les Espases.
Hope you enjoyed today's post. I had so much fun researching the different towns and can't wait to dive into other countries.
