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Repopulation of the Sierra de Jaén (16th century)
http://www2.ual.es/ideimand/repoblac...de-jaen-s-xvi/
The alfoz of the city of Jaén, located in the years prior to 1492, as part of the immediate border with the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, was the protagonist of a long repopulation process, marked by two frustrated attempts made both in 1489 and 1508 , taking effect, finally, in the times of Carlos V, between 1537 and 1539.
Catastro de Ensenada. Portal de Archivos Españoles. Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte.
The first initiative took place in 1489, when the Jaén council obtained a license from the Catholic Monarchs to repopulate an area located between the Otíñar castle and the banks of the Eliche river, with the aim of founding a villa in a space where until now a farmhouse was located, known as Los Villares, and which had been abandoned after several Muslim incursions. A few years later, in 1494, after the war had ended, the municipal council of Giennes came to grant up to four neighborhoods for this purpose, as it was proceeding in parallel in other nearby points, the case of Cambil. However, the initiative did not bear fruit and the project was paralyzed.
A decade later, in 1507, the city council of Jaén proposed to the Crown the need to populate some areas of its alfoz, requesting the pertinent royal license, which was ratified by Queen Juana, on March 17, 1508 , through a royal certificate, decreeing the creation of seven nuclei in its term, which would mean the establishment of a total of eight hundred residents.
The populations would be located mainly in the southern fringe and to a lesser extent in the eastern part of the Giennense alfoz –case of El Triana, La Mancha and Torre el Moral-, giving priority to those nuclei established in the so-called Sierra de Jaén.
COLONIZATION PROJECT OF THE SIERRA DE JAÉN year 1508
Settlements Neighbors numbers
Campillo de Arenas 100
Nava el Can 50
Susana y Ranera 100
El Hoyo y Cabañeros 100
Otiñar 50
Cerro el Viento y Los Villares de Eliche 300
El Triana, La Mancha y Torre el Moral 100
The pretense of the Giennense council with this repopulation was twofold: on the one hand, to establish a stable population in the immediate environment of the depopulated city of Jaén, in order to expand control over the territory, introducing the concept of security; and on the other, above all, to carry out a true agrarian colonization.
However, the initiative collided with the interests of the local Mesta, made up of a significant sector of the Giennense municipal oligarchies themselves, for which the establishment of settlers in the Sierra de Jaén and above all, the consequent possibility that, along with He, proceeding to the clearing of the surrounding lands, represented a serious threat to the maintenance of his economic activities and interests. In response to this circumstance, a response was filed by filing a lawsuit with the Royal Chancery of Granada against residents who had received royal authorization to colonize the new populations, which led to the project being paralyzed.
The judicial action was arduous, since in 1526 various proceedings were still being undertaken in this regard. In fact, the repopulation initiative was not reactivated until the enactment of a car by Carlos V on August 14, 1536.
The repopulation project of the Sierra de Jaén was definitely restarted between 1537 and 1539, and now it has been successfully undertaken, although implying notable differences with respect to the previous plan of 1508. The main one, undoubtedly, was represented by the notable reduction of settlements to populate, which went from seven to four populations.
The number of residents expected to host in each of the established settlements also varied. Thus, in Los Villares the number of the three hundred residents foreseen in 1508 was reduced to one hundred and sixty-six, while in Valdepeñas, a nucleus that would bring together the foundations envisaged in 1508 by Susana and Ranera - one hundred neighbors - and El Hoyo and Cabañeros - Another hundred neighbors-, instead of two hundred families, the project resumed in 1537 foresaw the arrival of one hundred and fifty residents, a figure that was finally restricted to one hundred and twenty-four in the first installment of neighborhoods. On the contrary, in La Mancha, the volume of residents increased compared to that decreed in 1508, while it remained practically unchanged in the case of Campillo de Arenas. In any case, the distinctive note at this second moment is that it seems to be trying to find a balance in the four new towns, since they would all receive a very similar contingent of neighbors, unlike the project proposed in 1508, in which a greater diversification between some settlements and others.
COLONIZATION PROJECT OF THE SIERRA DE JAÉN years 1537-1539
Settlements Number of neighbors
Campillo de Arenas 110
El Baldepeñas 150
La Mancha 150
Los Villares 166
The project promoted at this time involved some new questions, which are worth highlighting for their significance in the whole of the Hispanic Monarchy at this time. In the first place, we are faced with a unitary project, which involved the foundation, in unison, of four population centers, an anomalous circumstance at the moment, at least in terms of the reality of the Iberian Peninsula, unlike what which will happen in the 18th century with an initiative like the New Populations of Sierra Morena that also affected the kingdom of Jaén. In fact, the only thing that we found in these years of the reign of Carlos V in the Peninsula are specific attempts at repopulation, as represented by the beginning of his government, the creation of Vera in 1518 or on a date closer to that of our populations, the attempt to colonize Benamejí, in the kingdom of Córdoba, proposed in 1534, although it was not finally approved until 1542.
The repopulation undertaken in the Sierra de Jaén in the thirties of the 16th century represents, thus, without any doubt, the main repopulation program that we located in the peninsular area of the Crown of Castile during the government of Carlos V.
Despite being a unitary plan, in its development the appearance of two different models is appreciated, among those nuclei founded on the plain –Campillo de Arenas and La Mancha (current Mancha Real) - and those established in areas with complicated orography - Los Villares and Valdepeñas-, an appreciable issue both in the urban layout, and in circumstances as the greatest attraction for a colonization from immediate localities in the case of the nuclei established in the plain, unlike those located in steep areas, where a A very significant contingent of the new settlers came from distant populations, obtaining a neighborhood as a privilege granted exprofesso by Carlos V. A similar behavior was observed when studying the economic activities of close settlers, which show the priority agricultural dedication of the nuclei established in the plain, while those on high welcomed the neighborhood grant in favor of a good number of individuals linked to the militia or activities directly related to the court - king's singer, sommelier, cupbearer, etc-.
A distinctive note, also to be noted in this repopulation process, is the existence of a single architect for the urban layout of the four populations: Juan de Reolid.
The chronology of the foundations, as well as the ideology of the layout of these urban centers - with a clear distinction between public and private space - or with the claim - not achieved in all cases, but pursued - to achieve an orthogonal layout , seems to refute the theory that these nuclei could serve as a model for the urbanization process undertaken in the West Indies, opening, on the contrary, new avenues for debate on whether a transfer of typologies could be carried out in reverse Or it was simply parallel practices.
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