Pastrana is a
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 the province of
Guadalajara
Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...
,
Castilla–La Mancha
Castilla–La Mancha (, ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Province of Albacete, Albacete, Province of Ciudad Real, Ciudad Real, Province of Cuenca, Cuenca, Province of Guadalajar ...
, Spain.
As of 1 January 2022, it had a registered population of 850.
The municipality spans across a total area of 95.70 km
2.
Geography
Belonging to the
Alcarria natural region, the town is located at the confluence of two small water streams close to the , a small
Tagus
The Tagus ( ; ; ) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales between Cuenca and Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally westward, and empties into the Atlantic Ocean in Lisbon.
Name
T ...
tributary.
History
There is no mention to Pastrana in early medieval records. The hamlet was presumably founded and settled by the
Order of Calatrava
The Order of Calatrava (, ) was one of the Spanish military orders, four Spanish military orders and the first Military order (society), military order founded in Kingdom of Castile, Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bu ...
, who ruled in the
Alcarria region from their
stronghold in Zorita after the late 12th century. Pastrana was granted the privilege of ('township') in 1369, thereby asserting autonomy from Zorita. Parallel to the decline of Zorita, the council of Pastrana consolidated during the 15th century, thriving as a
market place
A marketplace, market place, or just market, is a location where people regularly gather for the purchase and sale of provisions, livestock, and other goods. In different parts of the world, a marketplace may be described as a ''souk'' (from ...
.
The town was one of the main centers of the mystic ''
alumbrados
The (, ''illuminated''), also called the , were the practitioners of a mystical form of Christianity in the Crown of Castile during the 15th–16th centuries. Some were only mildly heterodox, but others held views that were clearly heretical, ...
'' in the
Kingdom of Toledo in the early 16th century.
A substantial number of ''
Moriscos
''Moriscos'' (, ; ; " Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Catholic Church and Habsburg Spain commanded to forcibly convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed Islam. Spain had a sizeable M ...
'' was deported from the
Kingdom of Granada
The Emirate of Granada, also known as the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, was an 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 Europe.
...
to Pastrana upon the aftermath of the
Alpujarras revolt, with the town thereby becoming a hotspot of ''Morisco'' population in the Crown of Castile in the late-16th and early-17th centuries. They contributed to the thriving local
silk industry.
Upon the
expulsion of the ''Moriscos'' in the early 17th century, their place in the local economy was occupied by the Portuguese, so the beginning of the Castilian crisis of the 17th century was postponed in the town to the last years of the century.
18th- and 19th-century Pastrana underwent a period of stagnancy and decline, enduring a process of ramping
ruralization
Counterurbanization, Ruralization or deurbanization is a demographic and social process in which people move from urban areas to rural areas. It, as suburbanization, is inversely related to urbanization, and first occurs as a reaction to inner-c ...
.
See also
*
List of municipalities in Guadalajara
Province of Guadalajara, Guadalajara is a provinces of Spain, province in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, Spain, which is divided into 288 Municipalities of Spain, municipalities. Spanish cens ...
*
Pastrana tapestries
The Pastrana Tapestries () are four large tapestries commissioned by king Afonso V of Portugal to celebrate the successful conquest of the Moroccan cities of Asilah and Tangier by the Portuguese in 1471. Each measures about , and are made of wool ...
*
Ducal Palace of Pastrana
References
Bibliography
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{{authority control
Municipalities in the Province of Guadalajara