|
These days Teruel city is capital of the province of the same name (situated in eastern central Spain, in Aragón, at the confluence of the Guadalaviar and Alfambra rivers). The city is an agricultural trade centre. Tourism has become important. There are a Renaissance cathedral, a Gothic church, and an imposing two-storied aqueduct (16th cent.).
It's a sad fact that the history of Teruel is often written in the most flowery English prose imaginable. This practically unreadable load of nonsense has been translated directly from the original Spanish …also written in the same over-blown and indigestible style. I have done my best to break this down into common English.
The earliest written records of the existence of the village of Teruel can be traced to Muslim chronicles written in the 10th century. The Caliphate of Córdoba collapsed in 1031 and Spain was split up into a number of Moorish kingdoms. In 1238 Valencia was recaptured by King Jamie I and the kingdom of Aragón expands. The beginning Teruel's importance as a centre of commerce came with King Alfonso II when it fell into Christian hands during the so-called "Re-conquest" (a term used in Spanish history). The village lay at the border of the Kingdom of Aragón. I can find no record of a battle to take Teruel …indeed peace and harmony appears to have been far more important. This peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Christians seems to be responsible for the outstanding architecture of the place. Sadly, all was not peace and tranquillity. In the Middle Ages Teruel possessed a prominent Jewish community, that enjoyed several privileges, and that paid (in the fourteenth century) a yearly tax of some 300 sueldos (a sueldo had roughly the same value as the shilling of its day). Its members were engaged in commerce and industry, especially in wool-weaving. During the persecutions of 1391 many of them were killed, while others accepted Christianity in order to save their lives.
How history is written, and then taken notice of, in the present, day can make strange reading. I have tried to draw together the threads of a simple history of Teruel from the late fourteenth century onwards and most of it is about the activities of the Inquisition and the changing fortunes of the noble houses of Europe. There is almost no mention of the persecution and ejection of the ethnic minorities that just happened to possess the skills that held Aragón together. Not surprisingly, the kingdom's infrastructure went into decline, fell apart and finally stagnated. A revolution by the people was needed.
In a supreme irony, much of the countryside is as unspoiled as it is, largely due to impoverishment in earlier centuries and Teruel's World Heritage architectural status is based on what had to be rebuilt after the city was largely destroyed during the Civil War (1936-39) after some particularly bitter fighting.
|
|
