Jerez de la Frontera (Spanish pronunciation: [xeˈɾeθ ðe la fɾonˈteɾa]), or simply Jerez (pronounced [xeˈɾeθ]), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. As of 2015[update], the city, the largest in the province, had a population of 212,876. It is the fifth largest in Andalusia, and has become the transportation and communications hub of the province, surpassing even Cádiz, the provincial capital, in economic activity. Jerez de la Frontera is also, in terms of land area, the largest municipality in the province, and its sprawling outlying areas are a fertile zone for agriculture. There are also many cattle ranches and horse-breeding operations, as well as a world-renowned wine industry (Xerez).
Currently, Jerez, with 212,876 inhabitants, is the 25th largest city in Spain, the 5th in Andalusia and 1st in the Province of Cádiz. It belongs to the Municipal Association of the Bay of Cádiz (Mancomunidad de Municipios Bahía de Cádiz), the 3rd largest Andalusian metropolitan area and the 12th in Spain, with over 650,000 inhabitants.
Its municipality covers an area of 1,188.14 km2 (458.74 sq mi) and includes the Los Alcornocales Natural Park and the Sierra de Gibalbín, also known as Montes de Propio de Jerez.
The city is located 12 km (7.46 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean, in Campiña de Jerez, a region suitable for cultivating the vineyards that produce famous sherry. Some famous places in the city are Alcazar of Jerez, Church of San Miguel, Charterhouse of Jerez, the Cathedral of San Salvador.
Since 1987 the Grand Prix motorcycle racing has been held at the Circuito de Jerez in early May. On this weekend, the city welcomes tens of thousands of bikers from around the world. The same circuit has hosted several Formula 1 Grands Prix, including the 1997 final race of the season, which was marred with controversy for a notable high-profile championship-deciding incident. Other popular festivals in the city are Feria de Jerez or the Holy Week in Jerez.
Jerez is known as the city of flamenco, sherry, horses and motorcycles. In 2013, Jerez was the European Capital of Wine and 2014, it was the world's first Motorbike Capital.
The name Jerez goes back to the Phoenician Xera, Sèrès, later Romanized under the name of Ceret; the location of this settlement, however, remains unknown.[citation needed]
The classical Latin name of Asta Regia, unrelated to the present name, referred to an ancient city now found within Mesas de Asta, a rural district approximately 11 km (6.84 mi) from the center of Jerez.
The current Castilian name came by way of the Arabic name شريش Sherīsh.[2] In former times, during the Muslim period in Iberia, it was called Xerez or Xerés (pronounced /ʃeˈɾes̪/ in Old Spanish). The name of the famous fortified wine, sherry, which originated here (although some argue that it originated in Shiraz, Persia), represents an adaptation of the city's Arabic name, Sherish. Frontera refers to a Spanish frontier, located on the border between the Moorish and Christian regions of Spain during the 13th century, a regular host to skirmishes and clashes between the two regions. Over two centuries later, after the Castilian conquest of Granada in 1492, Xerez definitively lost its status as a frontier city, but did not lose that designation.
After the Kingdom of Castile took Jerez on October 9, 1264, following the name given by the Muslims to the city in the period known as the Reconquista, the city was then called Xerez in medieval Castilian, transcribing the consonant /ʃ/ (like the English sh) with the letter ⟨x⟩, as was the rule at the time. Thus the name was pronounced "Shereth", similar to the Moorish Arabic "Sherish". In the 16th century, the consonant /ʃ/ changed into the consonant /x/, with the corresponding spelling of Jerez.
The old spelling "Xerez" as the name given to the city survived in several foreign languages until very recently, and today continues to influence the name given to sherry: Portuguese Xerez [ʃəˈɾɛʃ], Catalan Xerès [ʃəˈɾɛs], English sherry /ˈʃɛri/, French Xérès [ɡzeʁɛs]. The city's main football team continues to use the old spelling, Xerez.
Traces of human presence in the area date from the upper Neolithic, and humans have inhabited Jerez de la Frontera since at least the Copper or Neolithic Age, but the identity of the first natives remains unclear. The first major protohistoric settlement in the area (around the third millennium BC) is attributed to the Tartessians.[3] Jerez later became a Roman city under the name of Asta Regia.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Vandals and the Visigoths ruled it until the Arabs conquered the area in 711. In the 11th century it briefly became the seat of an independent taifa. Some years later 'Abdun ibn Muhammad united it with Arcos and ruled both (ca. 1040-1053). In 1053 it was annexed to Seville. From 1145 to 1147 the region of Arcos and Jerez briefly operated as an emirate under dependency of Granada, led by Abu'l-Qasim Ahyal. Later the Almohads conquered the city. In the 12th and 13th centuries Jerez underwent a period of great development, building its defense system and setting the current street layout of the old town.
In 1231 the Battle of Jerez took place within the town's vicinity: Christian troops under the command of Álvaro Pérez de Castro, lord of the House of Castro and grandson of Alfonso VII, king of Castile and León, defeated the troops of the Emir Ibn Hud, despite the numerical superiority of the latter. After a month-long siege in 1261, the city surrendered to Castile, but its Muslim population remained. It rebelled and was finally defeated in 1264.
Its municipality covers an area of 1,188.14 km2 (458.74 sq mi) and includes the Los Alcornocales Natural Park and the Sierra de Gibalbín, also known as Montes de Propio de Jerez.
The city is located 12 km (7.46 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean, in Campiña de Jerez, a region suitable for cultivating the vineyards that produce famous sherry. Some famous places in the city are Alcazar of Jerez, Church of San Miguel, Charterhouse of Jerez, the Cathedral of San Salvador.
Since 1987 the Grand Prix motorcycle racing has been held at the Circuito de Jerez in early May. On this weekend, the city welcomes tens of thousands of bikers from around the world. The same circuit has hosted several Formula 1 Grands Prix, including the 1997 final race of the season, which was marred with controversy for a notable high-profile championship-deciding incident. Other popular festivals in the city are Feria de Jerez or the Holy Week in Jerez.
Jerez is known as the city of flamenco, sherry, horses and motorcycles. In 2013, Jerez was the European Capital of Wine and 2014, it was the world's first Motorbike Capital.
The name Jerez goes back to the Phoenician Xera, Sèrès, later Romanized under the name of Ceret; the location of this settlement, however, remains unknown.[citation needed]
The classical Latin name of Asta Regia, unrelated to the present name, referred to an ancient city now found within Mesas de Asta, a rural district approximately 11 km (6.84 mi) from the center of Jerez.
The current Castilian name came by way of the Arabic name شريش Sherīsh.[2] In former times, during the Muslim period in Iberia, it was called Xerez or Xerés (pronounced /ʃeˈɾes̪/ in Old Spanish). The name of the famous fortified wine, sherry, which originated here (although some argue that it originated in Shiraz, Persia), represents an adaptation of the city's Arabic name, Sherish. Frontera refers to a Spanish frontier, located on the border between the Moorish and Christian regions of Spain during the 13th century, a regular host to skirmishes and clashes between the two regions. Over two centuries later, after the Castilian conquest of Granada in 1492, Xerez definitively lost its status as a frontier city, but did not lose that designation.
After the Kingdom of Castile took Jerez on October 9, 1264, following the name given by the Muslims to the city in the period known as the Reconquista, the city was then called Xerez in medieval Castilian, transcribing the consonant /ʃ/ (like the English sh) with the letter ⟨x⟩, as was the rule at the time. Thus the name was pronounced "Shereth", similar to the Moorish Arabic "Sherish". In the 16th century, the consonant /ʃ/ changed into the consonant /x/, with the corresponding spelling of Jerez.
The old spelling "Xerez" as the name given to the city survived in several foreign languages until very recently, and today continues to influence the name given to sherry: Portuguese Xerez [ʃəˈɾɛʃ], Catalan Xerès [ʃəˈɾɛs], English sherry /ˈʃɛri/, French Xérès [ɡzeʁɛs]. The city's main football team continues to use the old spelling, Xerez.
Traces of human presence in the area date from the upper Neolithic, and humans have inhabited Jerez de la Frontera since at least the Copper or Neolithic Age, but the identity of the first natives remains unclear. The first major protohistoric settlement in the area (around the third millennium BC) is attributed to the Tartessians.[3] Jerez later became a Roman city under the name of Asta Regia.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Vandals and the Visigoths ruled it until the Arabs conquered the area in 711. In the 11th century it briefly became the seat of an independent taifa. Some years later 'Abdun ibn Muhammad united it with Arcos and ruled both (ca. 1040-1053). In 1053 it was annexed to Seville. From 1145 to 1147 the region of Arcos and Jerez briefly operated as an emirate under dependency of Granada, led by Abu'l-Qasim Ahyal. Later the Almohads conquered the city. In the 12th and 13th centuries Jerez underwent a period of great development, building its defense system and setting the current street layout of the old town.
In 1231 the Battle of Jerez took place within the town's vicinity: Christian troops under the command of Álvaro Pérez de Castro, lord of the House of Castro and grandson of Alfonso VII, king of Castile and León, defeated the troops of the Emir Ibn Hud, despite the numerical superiority of the latter. After a month-long siege in 1261, the city surrendered to Castile, but its Muslim population remained. It rebelled and was finally defeated in 1264.
After the Kingdom of Castile took Jerez on October 9, 1264, following the name given by the Muslims to the city in the period known as the Reconquista, the city was then called Xerez in medieval Castilian, transcribing the consonant /ʃ/ (like the English sh) with the letter ⟨x⟩, as was the rule at the time. Thus the name was pronounced "Shereth", similar to the Moorish Arabic "Sherish". In the 16th century, the consonant /ʃ/ changed into the consonant /x/, with the corresponding spelling of Jerez.
The old spelling "Xerez" as the name given to the city survived in several foreign languages until very recently, and today continues to influence the name given to sherry: Portuguese Xerez [ʃəˈɾɛʃ], Catalan Xerès [ʃəˈɾɛs], English sherry /ˈʃɛri/, French Xérès [ɡzeʁɛs]. The city's main football team continues to use the old spelling, Xerez.
Traces of human presence in the area date from the upper Neolithic, and humans have inhabited Jerez de la Frontera since at least the Copper or Neolithic Age, but the identity of the first natives remains unclear. The first major protohistoric settlement in the area (around the third millennium BC) is attributed to the Tartessians.[3] Jerez later became a Roman city under the name of Asta Regia.
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Vandals and the Visigoths ruled it until the Arabs conquered the area in 711. In the 11th century it briefly became the seat of an independent taifa. Some years later Western Roman Empire, the Vandals and the Visigoths ruled it until the Arabs conquered the area in 711. In the 11th century it briefly became the seat of an independent taifa. Some years later 'Abdun ibn Muhammad united it with Arcos and ruled both (ca. 1040-1053). In 1053 it was annexed to Seville. From 1145 to 1147 the region of Arcos and Jerez briefly operated as an emirate under dependency of Granada, led by Abu'l-Qasim Ahyal. Later the Almohads conquered the city. In the 12th and 13th centuries Jerez underwent a period of great development, building its defense system and setting the current street layout of the old town.
In 1231 the Battle of Jerez took place within the town's vicinity: Christian troops under the command of Álvaro Pérez de Castro, lord of the House of Castro and grandson
In 1231 the Battle of Jerez took place within the town's vicinity: Christian troops under the command of Álvaro Pérez de Castro, lord of the House of Castro and grandson of Alfonso VII, king of Castile and León, defeated the troops of the Emir Ibn Hud, despite the numerical superiority of the latter. After a month-long siege in 1261, the city surrendered to Castile, but its Muslim population remained. It rebelled and was finally defeated in 1264.
The discovery of the Americas and the conquest of Granada, in 1492, made Jerez one of the most prosperous cities of Andalusia through trade and through its proximity to the ports of Seville and Cádiz. Despite the social, economic and political decadence that occurred in the seventeenth century, towards the end of the Habsburg rule, the city managed to maintain a reasonable[citation needed] pace of development, becoming world-famous for its wine industry.
The city of Jerez is governed by the ayuntamiento (municipality) of Jer
The city of Jerez is governed by the ayuntamiento (municipality) of Jerez, whose representatives, as in other towns in Spain, are elected every four years by universal suffrage for all citizens older than 18 years of age. The body is chaired by the mayor of Jerez.
Currently, the mayor is María del Carmen Sánchez Díaz, known as Mamen Sánchez, member of Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, who won the municipal election in 2015, by the aid of Ganemos Jerez and IULV-CA.
List of mayors of Jerez since the early twentieth century to the present: