Niebla, Andalusia
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Niebla is a town and
municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...
located in the province of
Huelva Huelva (, ) is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is between two short rias though has an outlying spur including nature reserve on the Gulf of Cádiz coast. The ria ...
, in
Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost 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 "historical nationality". The t ...
, southern
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...
. It lies on the banks of the
Rio Tinto Rio Tinto, meaning "red river", may refer to: Businesses * Rio Tinto (corporation), an Anglo-Australian multinational mining and resources corporation ** Rio Tinto Alcan, based in Canada ** Rio Tinto Borax in America *** Rio Tinto Borax Mine, ...
, 30 km from
Huelva Huelva (, ) is a city in southwestern Spain, the capital of the province of Huelva in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is between two short rias though has an outlying spur including nature reserve on the Gulf of Cádiz coast. The ria ...
and 60 km from
Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...
. According to the 2008
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...
, it has a population of 4,200 inhabitants. A 2-km town wall surrounds the perimeter of the town. The Alcazar or castle dates mostly from the 15th century. Just outside the town a
Roman bridge The ancient Romans were the first civilization to build large, permanent bridges. Early Roman bridges used techniques introduced by Etruscan immigrants, but the Romans improved those skills, developing and enhancing methods such as arches and ...
, still in use today, crosses the Rio Tinto.


History

Niebla's history dates back 3,000 years. The town's early importance was due to the silver industry, exploited by
Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...
n traders by the 8th century B.C. The town was a commercial and political centre known as ''Ilipla'' in Roman times. By 713 the town of Ilipla was under Muslim control. The town became part of the emirate of Cordoba in 756 and further fortifications were constructed. From 1023 Niebla became the capital of the Taifa of Niebla, whose army fought the
Taifa of Seville The Taifa of Seville ( ''Ta'ifat-u Ishbiliyyah'') was an Arab kingdom which was ruled by the Abbadid dynasty. It was established in 1023 and lasted until 1091, in what is today southern Spain and Portugal. It gained independence from the Caliph ...
. The battle was lost and Niebla fell under the control of Seville in 1053. Islamic rule began to weaken after 1212, and the town was conquered in 1262 by
Alfonso X of Castile Alfonso X (also known as the Wise, es, el Sabio; 23 November 1221 – 4 April 1284) was King of Castile, León and Galicia from 30 May 1252 until his death in 1284. During the election of 1257, a dissident faction chose him to be king of Ger ...
. Descriptions of the siege suggest that this town was the place where
gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...
was first used in Spain.


Ecclesiastical history

Niebla has once been a Catholic bishopric, suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Sevilla in the
Visigothic Kingdom The Visigothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of the Goths ( la, Regnum Gothorum), was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. One of the Germanic successor states to ...
, founded probably around 400. It survived the Muslim conquest of
Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
, until the arrival of the most intolerant
Almohads The Almohad Caliphate (; ar, خِلَافَةُ ٱلْمُوَحِّدِينَ or or from ar, ٱلْمُوَحِّدُونَ, translit=al-Muwaḥḥidūn, lit=those who profess the unity of God) was a North African Berber Muslim empire f ...
in the 12th century, when its last (name lost) bishop fled to Seville. Its former territory is now entirely comprised in the Diocese of Huelva. ;''Suffragan Bishops of Elepla/Niebla : incomplete * Vincomalos (466–509) * Basilio (circa 585 – 590) * Juan (John) (mentioned between 633 and 646) * Servando (between 653 and 656) * Geta (between 681 and 688) * Pápulo (in 693) * (anonymous) (?–1154)


Titular see

In 1969 the diocese was nominally restored as Latin
Titular bishopric A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...
under the names of Elepla (also Curiate Italian) / Eleplen(sis) (Latin adjective). It has had the following incumbents, so far of the fitting Episcopal (lowest) rank :http://www.gcatholic.org/dioceses/former/t0696.htm GCatholic * Luis Almarcha Hernández (1970.04.04 – resigned 1970.12.11) on emeritate as former Bishop of León (Spain) (1944.07.10 – retired 1970.04.04), died 1974 * Ciro Alfonso Gómez Serrano (1972.07.24 – 1975.10.25) as Coadjutor Bishop of Socorro y San Gil ( Colombia) (1972.07.24 – 1975.10.25), later succeeding as Bishop of Socorro y San Gil (1975.10.25 – death 1980.01.19); previously Bishop of Girardot (Colombia) (1961.04.08 – 1972.07.24) * Pablo Ervin Schmitz Simon,
Capuchin Franciscans The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (; postnominal abbr. O.F.M. Cap.) is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of Three " First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant (OFM Obs., now OFM ...
(O.F.M. Cap.) (1984.06.22 – ...), first as Auxiliary Bishop of
Bluefields Bluefields is the capital of the South Caribbean Autonomous Region in Nicaragua. It was also the capital of the former Kingdom of Mosquitia, and later the Zelaya Department, which was divided into North and South Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regi ...
(
Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...
) (1984.06.22 – 1994.07.28), then having succeeded as
Apostolic Vicar Apostolic may refer to: The Apostles An Apostle meaning one sent on a mission: *The Twelve Apostles of Jesus, or something related to them, such as the Church of the Holy Apostles *Apostolic succession, the doctrine connecting the Christian Chur ...
of Bluefields.


See also

*
List of Catholic dioceses in Spain, Andorra, Ceuta and Gibraltar The diocesan system of the Catholic church government in Spain consists mainly of a nearly entirely Latin hierarchy of 70 territorial (arch)dioceses : * fourteen ecclesiastical provinces, each headed by a metropolitan archbishop (one of which, Tol ...


References


Sources and external links


Niebla
- Sistema de Información Multiterritorial de Andalucía * https://web.archive.org/web/20050123145022/http://www.spain.info/TourSpain/Destinos/TipoIII/Datos+Generales/A/JP/0/niebla?language=en

Municipalities in the Province of Huelva {{andalusia-geo-stub