Arnedo is the third largest town in

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and N� ...

, Spain. It is located near

Calahorra Calahorra [] ( an, Calagorra, la, Calagurris) is a municipality in the comarca of Rioja Baja, near the border with Navarre on the right bank of the Ebro. During Ancient Rome, Ancient Roman times, Calahorra was a municipium known as ''Calagurris ...

, and has a population of about 15,000 people. Its economy is based on the

shoe A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from culture t ...

industry.

History

The area of Arnedo has been inhabited as early as the

Neolithic Age The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

. In pre-Roman times it was known as Sadacia or Sidacia, while the current name derives from the Latin ''Arenetum'' ("Place of sand"); the Romans, who arrived here in the 2nd century BC replacing the

Celtiberians The Celtiberians were a group of Celts and Celticized peoples inhabiting an area in the central-northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the final centuries BCE. They were explicitly mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors (e.g. Strab ...

, built here a fortification to defend the hill, which commanded an important communication hub. Of the Visigothic Age are remains of a 6th-century

cave-church A cave monastery is a monastery built in caves, with possible outside facilities. The 3rd-century monk St. Antony the Great, known as the founder of monasticism, lived in a cave. *Albania ** Qafthanë Cave Church, cave church near Urakë ** S ...

. The

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

conquered Arnedo in the 8th century AD and made it the capital of one of the 26 provinces in which they divided Iberia. The town was conquered by the Christian king

Sancho I of Pamplona Sancho Garcés I (Basque: ''Antso Ia. Gartzez''; c. 860 – 10 December 925), also known as Sancho I, was king of Pamplona from 905 until 925. He was the son of García Jiménez and was the first king of Pamplona of the Jiménez dynasty. Sancho I ...

in 908-909.

Main sights

* Ruins of the castle * Church of St. Thomas * Church of St. Cosmas and Damian, housing a Baroque high altar * Church of St. Eulalia * Monastery of ''Nuestra Señora de Vico'', situated some 4 km outside the city * Gate of ''Nuestra Señora de la Nieves'' * Museum of Shoes

Politics

Notable people

Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi Musa ibn Musa al-Qasawi ( also nicknamed ''the Great'' (); died 26 September 862) was leader of the Muwallad Banu Qasi clan and ruler of a semi-autonomous principality in the upper Ebro valley in northern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia in the 9th centur ...

Leopoldo Alas Mínguez Leopoldo Alas Mínguez (4 September 1962 in Arnedo – 1 August 2008 in Madrid) was a Spanish writer, poet and editor. He was the grand nephew of Leopoldo Alas "Clarin". He studied in Italian philology, and was one of the most important authors o ...

* Jesús Ángel Solana

Twin towns

Andosilla Andosilla is a town in the province and autonomous community of Navarra, northern Spain. Demography Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.9) ImageSize ...

, Spain *

Parthenay Parthenay () is an ancient fortified town and ''commune'' in the Deux-Sèvres department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in western France. It is sited on a rocky spur that is surrounded on two sides by the River Thouet, and is the su ...

, France *

Elda Elda is a city and municipality located in the province of Alicante, Spain. , it has a total population of 55,618 inhabitants, ranking as the 7th most populous city in the province. Elda joins together with the town of Petrer to form a conurbat ...

, Spain * Farsia, Western Sahara

References