Alcañices
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Alcañices ( pt, Alcanizes) is a small town in the
province of Zamora Zamora () is a province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is bordered by the provinces of Ourense, León, Valladolid, and Salamanca, and by Portugal. The present-day province of Zamora w ...
, Spain. It is very close to the Portugal-Spain border, not far from the Portuguese town of Bragança. In fact, the Village is especially remembered for being the seat of the
Treaty of Alcañices The Treaty of Alcañices ( pt, Tratado de Alcanizes; es, Tratado de Alcañices) was made in Alcañices between King Denis of Portugal and King Fernando IV of Castile in 1297. Denis was the grandson of King Alfonso X of Castile and essentially an ...
that on 12 September 1297 defined the border between Portugal and the
Crown of Castile The Crown of Castile was a medieval polity in the Iberian Peninsula that formed in 1230 as a result of the third and definitive union of the crowns and, some decades later, the parliaments of the kingdoms of Castile and León upon the accessi ...
, the oldest in Europe. Its name is of Arabic origin and means "the churches", although the origin of the town may have been a hillfort of the
Zoelae The Zoelae were an ancient Celtic tribe of Gallaecia, living in the north of modern Portugal, in the province of Trás-os-Montes, between the mountains of Serra da Nogueira and the mountains of Mogadouro. See also * Pre-Roman peoples of the Iber ...
. During the Visigoths Enlisted as a free territory until in 586 King Liuvigild assigned it the Pagus Alistii to the Archbishop of Braga, which in 675 the Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela claimed as his own for not agreeing with the award. In the Reconquest, Alfonso IX of León gave it to the
Order of the Temple The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon ( la, Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Salomonici), also known as the Order of Solomon's Temple, the Knights Templar, or simply the Templars, was a Catholic military order, o ...
in 1175 for its repopulation, which in 1210 built a castle and 1255 erected a Commandery.''Castillos de España'', (volumen II). VV.AA.. Editorial Everest, S.A.. León, 1997. (P. 1.287) Tradition says that
Saint Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a Mysticism, mystic Italian Catholic Church, Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most vener ...
passed through Alcañices in 1214 when he was on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. From 1371 to 1820 Alcañices was a manor town of the March of Alcañices, which in 1741 became part of the Ducal House of Alburquerque. During this time, the Marquises built a hospital for pilgrims, an alhóndiga for communal grain, a bridge, a series of fountains and several mills and promoted the creation of a Franciscan convent, which maintained that condition until its confiscation in 1848, as well as a palace within the fortress that is currently a residence for the elderly. In the local toponymy there are still references to the Prado del Marqués or the Huerta del Marqués. In addition, during this period part of the old wall was rebuilt, which had an active military use until 1817. During the Modern Age, Alcañices was burned by John IV of Portugal in 1643 and was the scene of battles during the Spanish War of Independence, when in 1813 General La Croix surprised Mayor Echevarría and when Marshal Massená sent two divisions to subdue Alcañices and Puebla de Sanabria after the taking of Ciudad Rodrigo. Alcañices was the headquarters of the guerrilla party of Tomás García Vicente. In Alcañices, until the expulsion of 1492, there was a Jewish quarter that was located outside the city walls, in the southwest of the Dentro la Villa neighborhood, on the sunny slope that looks towards the Fuente del Cañico. The popular name of the Tanneries still subsists in this area due to the leather tanning work carried out by the Jews, who had their own cemetery on the right bank of the river. In the Royal Chancery of Valladolid, various lawsuits of nobility over Alcañices are preserved, such as Rodríguez (1553), Losada (1553), Pereira de Castro (1611), Gago (1714) and Puelles (1794). In the National Historical Archive there is that of Carrión (1757). Five kings have visited Alcañices: Alfonso IX of León (1204), Ferdinand IV of Castile and
Denis of Portugal Denis (, ; 9 October 1261 – 7 January 1325 in Santarém), called the Farmer King (''Rei Lavrador'') and the Poet King (''Rei Poeta''), was King of Portugal. The eldest son of Afonso III of Portugal by his second wife, Beatrice of Castile, and ...
(1297) and Juan Carlos I of Spain (1997), as well as - being Infante -
Fernando III of Castile Ferdinand III ( es, Fernando, link=no; 1199/120130 May 1252), called the Saint (''el Santo''), was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. He was the son of Alfonso IX of León and Berenguela of ...
(1204). It has also been visited by the President of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio (1997), named Adoptive Son in 2006. Alcañices has historically been granted the titles of Noble, Illustrious and Historic Village.Titles of the Village
/ref> Noteworthy is the Route of the Mills and the Route of the Fountains, two modernist buildings (one of them by Francesc Ferriol), as well as various examples of traditional county architecture. The Quinta de los Templarios, an old Templar recreation estate, also remains from the Templar past. Tenant Pablo Muñoz de la Morena, hero of the
Spanish War of Independence The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain, ...
, is buried in its old parish cemetery. As for intangible heritage, the religious piece "Auto de los Reyes Magos" sung since time immemorial, of medieval origin. Since 1515, the village also has a Vera Cruz brotherhood, as well as three other brotherhoods and twelve civil associations, including the Manteos y Monteras de Alcañices Folklore School. It is a central plateau, with undulating geography, alternating dry landscapes with slight mounds, the product of the passage from the Castilian countryside to the Leonese mountains. The soil corresponds to the siliceous zone in which clay abounds. The municipality belongs to the Meseta Ibérica transboundary biosphere reserve, a transboundary natural space between Spain and Portugal protected in 2015 by Unesco for the high level of conservation of its natural habitats and the species that inhabit it. Alcañices is located next to the Sierra de la Culebra, the largest wolf reserve in Europe.


Town hall

Alcañices is home to the
town hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
of 4 villages: *Alcañices (893 inhabitants, INE 2020). *
Alcorcillo Alcorcillo is a locality in the municipality of Alcañices, province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2014 census (INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear resea ...
(98 inhabitants, INE 2020). *
Vivinera Vivinera is a locality in the municipality of Alcañices, province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain. According to the 2014 census (INE), the locality has a population of 58 inhabitants. See also *List of municipalities in Zamora Zamora ( ...
(53 inhabitants, INE 2020). * Santa Ana (21 inhabitants, INE 2020).


See also

*
Aliste (comarca) Aliste is a comarca located in the west of the province of Zamora, Castile and León, Spain, bordering with Portugal in the west and in the south. It covers 193,883 hectares. Aliste is an area that has preserved a rich cultural and ethnologi ...


References

Municipalities of the Province of Zamora {{Zamora-geo-stub