Hi friends
Today I would like you to explain an ideal place for a day trip from Madrid: the village of Hita.
The village of Hita is located in the province of Guadalajara to 28.7 km from its capital, in the shire of the Barren plateau region also called the Black Villages and famous for the quality of their honey.
Hita is at a distance of about 85.9 km Madrid, and reached through the N-II to the town of Torija at kilometer 77. Once I get there the GU-190 road to Burgo’s Tower then the GU-144 to the same Hita.
Hita’s Hill, natural watchtower was used by the Romans as a checkpoint on the road from Mérida to Saragossa. Under Moor rule was known as population Fita, term of Latin origin that means a fixed place and outstanding.
In 1085 the Castilian King Alfons VI reconquered lands. Before this event happen and cited the village appears in the “Poema del Mio Cid (The Poem of my Lord)” and the “The Legend of the Seven Lara’s Princes (La Legenda de los Siete Infantes de Lara)”, demonstrating its importance for early Castilla.
After the reconquest continue to live in Hita Christians, Jews and Muslims. The Jewish population grows to the fourteenth century the village's economic control, based mainly on wine production. Perhaps this fact the King Peter I, The Cruel, created a center for collecting taxes in the Castle of Hita by the Jewish Samuel Levi. From that moment onward, Hita became an important hub of economic exchange between the Northern Plateau and the Southern Plateau, with an obligatory stop on the "Castilian Mesta".
The Mesta also called “Honored Council of the Mesta (Honrado Concejo de la Mesta)” was a powerful of sheep association of holders in the medieval Kingdom Of Castile. The sheep were trasushumant, migrating from the pastures of Extremadura and Andalusia to Castile, Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia and back according to the season.
The no-mans-land (up to 100 km across) between Christian Spain and Moorish Spain was too insecure for arable farming and was only exploited by shepherds. When the land was reconquered by the Spanish, farmers began to settle and disputes with pastoralists were common. The Mesta can be regarded as the first, and most powerful, agricultural union in medieval Europe. The exportation of “Merino Wool” enriched the Mesta members (nobility and church orders) who had acquired ranches during the process of “Reconquest (Reconquista)”. The Kings of Castile conceded many privileges to the Mesta. Even today, herds of sheep may be transported by rail, but the perhaps prehistoric “traditional royal rights-of-ways for sheep (Cañadas Reales)” are legally protected “forever” from occupation and barring. Some Madrid streets are still part of the “Cañada” system, and there are groups that organize sheep transportation across the modern city as a reminder of ancient rights and cultures.
In this century John Ruiz, Archpriest of Hita, type one of the masterpieces of medieval literature: “The Book of Good Love”. Another fact of great significance is the arrival of the Mendoza family Álava as new Lords of Hita.
The Marquis of Santillana, Íñigo López of Mendoza, becomes the fifteenth century in a powerful noble poet and great lover of the arts. As Lord of Hita rebuilt the castle around 1430 and strengthens the population. A late fifteenth century, coinciding with the expulsion of the Jews and the arrival of the Catholic Monarchs, began the decline of Hita.
The Spanish Civil War leads to the destruction of the town, being the front line throughout the race. In 1965 the remains of the old town were declared a Historical Site.
Very little remains of its glorious past in Hita, as being the area from the front lineduring the Spanish Civil War, was almost demolished. Retains some medieval wall paintings commissioned by the Marquis of Santillana, and “The St Mary’s Gate”, which although rebuilt is a nice example of military architecture of the fifteenth century.
Upon entering the gate of “The St Mary’s Gate”, we are in the main square from where the steep streets that will lead, among typical houses, to the ruins of the Church of “Saint Peter” where they were, in the sixteenth century, the tombs of most of the gentlemen of Hita. The tombstones were moved to the “Church of Saint John”, but still remains at the “Altar of Ferdinand of Mendoza, governor the strength of Hita in the fifteenth century.
Continuing uphill, we arrived at “The Church of Saint John Gothic-Mudejar”. The most interesting thing about it is the sixteenth-century coffered ceiling of one of its chapels. To visit should contact City Hall at telephone 949 85 27 63.
Near “Burgo’s Tower” and within the city of Hita are the remains of the Monastery of Sopetrán of Visigothic origin. First founded in the year 611 by King Gondemar and rebuilt four other times. The fifth and final was in 1372 when the archbishop of Toledo gave place to the Order of St. Benedict. From that time the Benedictines receivedfavors and gifts from kings and nobles, getting a splendor that lasted until the nineteenth century that due to the confiscation of Mendizabal, the monastery went to public auction.
There remain only the columns and arches in what was a splendid “Renaissance Cloister”.
During the year the village of Hita held numerous festivities. One of the most beautiful is the Medieval Festival which is held the first or second Saturday in July, but its date can be variable. During these festivities, are made theater related to "The Book of Good Love of the Archpriest of Hita, tournaments along the walls, traditional music ... that with the fact that people are dressed in period costume and the characters appear like prehistoric botargas to make that whoever attends it creates transported the late Middle Ages.
Another of the biggest festivities is rooted in Hita is it “Patron Saint's Day Festivity”: last weekend in May, in honor of the “Uphill Virgen (Virgen de la Cuesta)”. During these days there are processions and festivals. The Saturday morning held a meeting poetic ruins of Saint Peter, attended by a score of poets, from amateurs to prestigious, to recite his poems.
Edited by Losaustrias (05/05/11 12:44 AM)
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