Alpandeire is a Spanish municipality and village located in the Ronda area, near the peak of Jarestepar, (1,421 metres high), and surrounded by rugged scenery. A number of streams run through its territory. The municipality belongs to Málaga province, in the autonomous community of

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

History

Moor Moor or Moors may refer to: Nature and ecology * Moorland, a habitat characterized by low-growing vegetation and acidic soils. Ethnic and religious groups * Moors, Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during ...

ish times, Alpandeire was a fort built by the

Saracens file:Erhard Reuwich Sarazenen 1486.png, upright 1.5, Late 15th-century Germany in the Middle Ages, German woodcut depicting Saracens Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek language, Greek and Latin writings, to refer ...

after the battle of

Guadalete The Guadalete River is located almost entirely in the Spanish Province of Cádiz, rising in the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park at an elevation of about , and running for into the Bay of Cádiz at El Puerto de Santa Maria, north of the city of C ...

. It is believed that there were human settlements in Alpandeire in pre-historic times, since

burial ground A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite or graveyard is a place where the remains of dead people are buried or otherwise interred. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek , "sleeping place") implies that the land is specifically designated as a buri ...

s discovered in the area point right to the

Iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

and

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

s. In 1815 Alpandeire obtained the title of Villazgo as an award by

Fernando VII , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles IV of Spain , mother = Maria Luisa of Parma , birth_date = 14 October 1784 , birth_place = El Escorial, Spain , death_date = , death_place = Madrid, Spain , burial_pla ...

for the stubborn resistance of its population during the French occupation. The " Virgen del Rosario" is the traditional

patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or perso ...

of Alpandeire. Place of birth of the blessed Fray Leopoldo, in the present days this locality serves as a pilgrimage site where locals and outsiders pay tribute to the man of "Las tres aves María".

Demography

The municipality has a population of 291 (male: 144, female: 147), an area of 31 km² and a population density of 9.04. Six (5%) of the Alpandeire residents are foreigners.

Local administration

The former mayor of Alpandeire was Ms. Raquel Mena Medinilla, of the

coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

Izquierda Unida- Los Verdes – Convocatoria por Andalucía prior to the municipal elections of May 2007. This coalition had three

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

s in the town's ayuntamiento, while the Partido Socialista Obrero Español had three, and the Partido Popular had one. The current mayor came into office in June 2007 and is from the PSOE.

Elections

In the 2004 Spanish General Election the ruling Partido Socialista Obrero Español got 54.3% of the vote in Alpandeire, the Partido Popular got 25.3%, Izquierda Unida got 14.0%, and the

Partido Andalucista The Andalusian Party ( es, Partido Andalucista, PA) was an Andalusian nationalist centre-left political party from Andalusia (Spain), with an important presence in provinces such as Cádiz and Seville although in the past they have stood in other ...

got 3.8%.

References

External links

Official site
Municipalities in the Province of Málaga {{andalusia-geo-stub