Rosal de la Frontera is a

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 ...

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 ...

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 rias ...

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 ...

. 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 incl ...

, the municipality had a population of 1846 inhabitants.

Geography

Location

Located in the south-west of the

Iberian Peninsula 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 ...

, the village lies at about 219 m above sea level, near the right bank of the Chanza River. The national road cuts across the municipality and the village, connecting the latter with the Portuguese border (which is barely 3.8 km to the West) and, a bit farther, the Portuguese ''freguesia'' of Vila Verde de Ficalho.

History

Precedents

The area of the Chanza riverbanks was already inhabited in the

Neolithic 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 ...

and there is a megalithic stone circle known as "" near the village of Rosal, and within the municipal limits. As the

Portuguese Restoration War The Portuguese Restoration War ( pt, Guerra da Restauração) was the war between History of Portugal (1640–1777), Portugal and Habsburg Spain, Spain that began with the Portuguese revolution of 1640 and ended with the Treaty of Lisbon (1668), ...

broke out, many small settlements near the border depopulated, with the inhabitants withdrawing to the bigger villages, eventually leaving the rest of the territory open to

smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

and

banditry Banditry is a type of organized crime committed by outlaws typically involving the threat or use of violence. A person who engages in banditry is known as a bandit and primarily commits crimes such as extortion, robbery, and murder, either as an ...

. The hamlet of El Gallego was forsaken in 1642.

Repopulation

Part of the efforts for the repopulation of

Sierra Morena The Sierra Morena is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain. It stretches for 450 kilometres from east to west across the south of the Iberian Peninsula, forming the southern border of the ''Meseta Central'' plateau and providi ...

, from a legal standpoint the creation of Rosal steems from the 1822 Decree on the Repopulation of Large Territories and the granting of those powers to provincial deputations. The creation of Rosal was authorized in August 1834, soon after the death of Ferdinand VII. The first instructions for repopulation were issued in 1838 and by 1844 the village already had an

Ayuntamiento ''Ayuntamiento'' ()In other languages of Spain: * ca, ajuntament (). * gl, concello (). * eu, udaletxea (). is the general term for the town council, or ''cabildo'', of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin Amer ...

. Originally known as Rosal de Cristina, the municipality was renamed as Rosal de la Frontera as result of the new political environment created after the 1868 Glorious Revolution.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosal De La Frontera Municipalities in the Province of Huelva Portugal–Spain border crossings