Guadix (, ) is a city and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

in southern Spain, in the

province of Granada Granada is a province of southern Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Albacete, Murcia, Almería, Jaén, Córdoba, Málaga, and the Mediterranean Sea (along the Costa Tropi ...

. The city lies at an altitude of 913 metres, in the centre of the

Hoya of Guadix The Hoya of Guadix () is a natural plain in the northern part of the province of Granada, Andalusia, Spain. It covers some , and is formed by the basins of the rivers Fardes and Guadix. It is surrounded by the heights of the Sierra Nevada to t ...

, a high plain at the northern foothills of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

. It is located on the

Linares Baeza–Almería railway The Linares Baeza–Almería railway is an Iberian-gauge railway line in Spain. It branches from the Alcázar de San Juan–Cádiz railway at Linares and terminates in Almería. It is currently the main line linking Madrid to Almería. Route Th ...

. The city was built in the vicinity of gullies and badlands.

History

Early history

Evidence of

human settlement In geography, statistics and archaeology, a settlement, locality or populated place is a community of people living in a particular location, place. The complexity of a settlement can range from a minuscule number of Dwelling, dwellings gro ...

in the area surrounding Guadix goes back to at least the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

Ancient

Guadix el Viejo, 6 km northwest, was the Roman Acci (also ''Accitum'') mentioned in

Pliny's Natural History The ''Natural History'' () is a Latin work by Pliny the Elder. The largest single work to have survived from the Roman Empire to the modern day, the ''Natural History'' compiles information gleaned from other ancient authors. Despite the work' ...

and as Akki by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

, who placed it among the

Bastetani The Bastetani or Bastuli were an ancient Iberian (pre-Roman) people of the Iberian Peninsula (the Roman Hispania). They are believed to have spoken the Iberian language. The relationship between the Iberian Bastetani and the Tartessian Mastien ...

, whose capital was Basti. It is not known for certain whether it is of Phoenician or of early Spanish origin. The existence of an ''oppidum'' with a well-defined urban plan from the 6th century BC has been documented; archeological excavations have revealed complex spaces with straight walls and red adobe floors.

Kilns A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay into ...

and silos have also been found, demonstrating a high level of development in the settlement. Throughout the Iberian era, there was a shift in planning regarding the construction methods and the alignment of residences. The importance of craftsmanship and industry in the area has been shown by the discovery of what might be an oil press below Calle Palacio. Excavations at Cine Acci have uncovered a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

dwelling from the 5th century BC. According to

Macrobius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, usually referred to as Macrobius (fl. AD 400), was a Roman provincial who lived during the early fifth century, during late antiquity, the period of time corresponding to the Later Roman Empire, and when Latin was ...

, the primitive inhabitants paid homage to

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

under the name of Neton.

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

established the Roman colony called Julia Gemella. According to tradition, it was the seat of the first bishopric in

Hispania Hispania was the Ancient Rome, Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Roman Republic, Hispania was divided into two Roman province, provinces: Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior. During the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divide ...

, in the 2nd century.

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum#Numismatics, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction during the Roman Republic, Republic, in the third century BC, through Roman Empire, Imperial ...

were minted at Julia Gemella, and the settlement continued to be an important centre of commerce, leaving artifacts such as the

Pedestal of Isis A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called Socle (architecture), socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. T ...

, as well as the ruins of a Roman theatre. In addition, a network of sewers, galleries and water conduits have been uncovered in the city, as well as the possible remains of a Roman temple. Acci would have enjoyed the benefits of the

Ius Italicum ''Ius Italicum'' or ''ius italicum'' (Latin, Italian or Italic law) was a law in the early Roman Empire that allowed the emperors to grant cities outside Italy the legal fiction that they were on Italian soil. This meant that the city would be go ...

, which would have favoured social and economic development. The

fall of the Western Roman Empire The fall of the Western Roman Empire, also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome, was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vast ...

negatively influenced the status of Acci, whose population may have in large part moved to rural areas, and the city is known to have been one of the first in the Iberian Peninsula to adopt Catholicism. Few remains have been found dating from the IV to the XI century.

From the Moors to the ''Reconquista''

After 711 it rose to some importance as a Moorish fortress and trading station, renamed Wadi 'Ashi ("the

Wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

of Acci", or "The Water of Life"). According to Arab sources, the city was initially a rebel against the Umayyads, and after the Caliphate's decline, Guadix found itself located on the border between the territories of Zirids of Granada and those of the Banu Jayrán of Almería. The city was integrated into the

Almoravid Empire The Almoravid dynasty () was a Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almoh ...

and then by the

Almohad Caliphate The Almohad Caliphate (; or or from ) or Almohad Empire was a North African Berbers, Berber Muslim empire founded in the 12th century. At its height, it controlled much of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa (the Maghreb). Th ...

, which conquered al-Andalus and later left the peninsula, leading to Guadix becoming a territory of the

Emirate of Granada The Emirate of Granada, also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, was an Emirate, Islamic polity in the southern Iberian Peninsula during the Late Middle Ages, ruled by the Nasrid dynasty. It was the last independent Muslim state in Western ...

. During this period, Guadix was home to

Ḥamda bint Ziyād Ḥamda bint Ziyād al-Muʾaddib () was a twelfth-century Andalusian poet from Guadix, sister of Zaynab bint Ziyad al-Muʾaddib, and described by the seventeenth-century diplomat Mohammed ibn abd al-Wahab al-Ghassani as 'one of the poetesses ...

, one of medieval Granada's foremost women poets. The city was the site of the Battle of Guadix in January 1362 in which a small Castilian army was routed by the forces of Muhammed VI, Sultan of Granada. The civil wars in the kingdom of Granada turned Guadix into the capital of a short-lived kingdom ruled by Muhammad XIII of Granada: internal conflicts made the arrival of the Castillans easier, and the city surrendered without a siege to the kingdom of

Ferdinand and Isabella The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile () and King Ferdinand II of Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the '' de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, ...

in 1489.

Modern

By the end of the 19th century, Guadix had been famous for its cutlery; but its newer manufactures (chiefly earthenware, hempen goods, and hats) did not contribute to the city's economy significantly. Trade of wool, cotton, flax, corn and liqueurs took place in the city. The warm mineral springs of Cortes y Graena, once commonly frequented during the summer, are located roughly 10 kilometres west of Guadix. The novelist

Pedro Antonio de Alarcón Pedro Antonio de Alarcón y Ariza (10 March 183319 July 1891) was a nineteenth-century Spanish novelist, known best for his novel '' El sombrero de tres picos'' (1874), an adaptation of popular traditions which provides a description of villag ...

, author of ''

El sombrero de tres picos ''The Three-Cornered Hat'' ( or ) is a ballet choreographed by Léonide Massine to music by Manuel de Falla. Commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev, the ballet premiered in 1919. In addition to its Spanish setting, this ballet also employs the techniq ...

'', was born in Guadix in 1833. The 19th and 20th centuries saw a period of economic crisis for the town. Currently Guadix is a center of production of fruit (strawberries), cereals, vegetables, as well as a minor tourist center.

Landscape

The Hoya Basin has been subject to erosion due to the presence of small rivers in the surrounding elevations, which have given the area its characteristic landscape of gullies and badlands. The sediments of the rivers Fardes and Guadix have turned the region into a fertile, then irrigated area, where the use of the land ranges from the cultivation of fruit trees, where peach cultivation abounds, to forestry, in particular that of poplar groves, as well as the sowing of cereals, leguminous plants and vegetables.

Main sights

Guadix Cathedral The Cathedral of the Incarnation () is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Guadix, Spain. Construction began during the 16th century and was completed by the mid-18th century. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Guadix, Diocese of Guadix. L ...

(16th-18th centuries), built over a Moorish mosque in Gothic-Renaissance style. The façade is in Baroque style. * Church of St. Augustine (18th century), * Church of Santiago (1540), with a

Plateresque Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" (''plata'' being silver in Spanish language, Spanish), was an artistic movement, especially Architecture, architectural, developed in Spanish Empire, Spain and its territories, which appeared ...

portal * Convent and church of the Conception * Alcazaba, a Moorish fortress commanding the town * Barrio de Santiago, a neighborhood characterized by troglodyte houses carved in

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

rocks

Notable people

Pedro de Mendoza Pedro de Mendoza () (c. 1487 – June 23, 1537) was a Spanish ''conquistador'', soldier and explorer, and the first ''adelantado'' of New Andalusia. Setting sail Pedro de Mendoza was born in Guadix, Grenada, part of a large noble family that ...

Antonio Mira de Amescua Antonio Mira de Amescua (January 17, 1577 — September 8, 1644), Spanish dramatist, was born at Guadix (Granada) about 1578. He is said, but doubtfully, to have been the illegitimate son of one Juana Perez. He took orders, obtained a canonry at ...

Gaspar de Ávalos de la Cueva Gaspar de Ávalos de la Cueva (1485–1545), also named Gaspar Dávalos de la Cueva, was a Spanish people, Spanish Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Bishop (Catholic Church), bishop and Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal. Biography Gaspar Dávalos ...

Ibn Tufayl Ibn Ṭufayl ( – 1185) was an Arab Andalusian Muslim polymath: a writer, Islamic philosopher, Islamic theologian, physician, astronomer, and vizier. As a philosopher and novelist, he is most famous for writing the first philosophical no ...

* Antoni Infante

International relations

;Twin towns — Sister cities Guadix is twinned with: *

Celanova Celanova is a municipality in the province of Ourense, in the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain. It belongs to the comarca of Terra de Celanova. Situated near the border with Portugal, the municipality is bordered by Ramirás, Cartelle ...

, Spain (since 2006). *

L'Arboç L'Arboç () is a village in the province of Tarragona and autonomous community of Catalonia, Spain. L'Arboç contains a half-scale replica of the La Giralda in Seville. The building also contains copies of the Court of the Lions from the Alhambra ...

, Spain (since 2019). Guadix has also reached a "green-twinning" agreement with

Piaseczno Piaseczno () is a town in east-central Poland with 47,660 inhabitants. It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship, within the Warsaw metropolitan area, just south of Warsaw, approximately south of its center. It is a residential area and a suburb ...

, Poland.

References

External links

Ayuntamiento de Guadix

Cartography and aerial pictures of Guadix and Surroundings

The cave dwellers of southern Spain
–

BBC News Online BBC News Online is the website of BBC News, the division of the BBC responsible for newsgathering and production. It is one of the most popular news websites, with 1.2 billion website visits in April 2021, as well as being used by 60% of the U ...

{{Authority control Municipalities in the Province of Granada