Cuéllar (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkweʎaɾ]) is a municipality in the Province of Segovia, within the autonomous community of Castile and León, Spain.
The municipality had a population of 9,730 inhabitants according to the municipal register of inhabitants (INE) as of 1 January 2010, divided into 4,929 men and 4,801 women.
Cuéllar is located on a hill and is 60 km northeast of the capital city of Segovia and 50 km south of Valladolid. It occupies an area of 272 square kilometres (105 sq mi), and it is 857 metres (2,812 ft) above sea level. The Cerquilla and Cega rivers flow near the town. To the north, the town borders the municipality of Bahabón (the province of Valladolid); to the south, it borders Sanchonuño; to the east is Frumales, and to the west are San Cristóbal de Cuéllar and Vallelado.
Inhabitants of Cuéllar traditionally grow different crops (such as cereals, vegetables, chicory, legumes, and beets) and raise livestock, including pigs, sheep, and cows. Forestry and resin production were once important economic resources.
Professor Ubieto Arteta reported that there is some historical evidence of Cuéllar's existence in the 10th century. Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir (Spanish name: Almanzor) sacked the town and enslaved and deported its citizens to Andalusia. King Alfonso VI of León and Castile rebuilt the town, bringing in new settlers at the end of the 11th century. This was the origin of the municipality, which was ruled by its town council. In 1184, King Alfonso VIII of Castile assembled the parliament in Cuéllar.[1]
In the 13th century, Cuéllar was one of the most important towns in northern Spain,[citation needed] and the wool trade enriched the local economy. Many palaces and Mudéjar churches were constructed during this period. In 1256, Alfonso X of Castile granted Cuéllar a royal fuero. Queen María de Molina, Sancho IV of Castile's wife, inherited the town after her husband's death. During her troubled regency, the town was a refuge while her son, the future King Ferdinand IV of Castile, was still a child.
In the middle of the 14th century, King Pedro I "the Cruel" married Doña Juana de Castro in Cuéllar. The marriage was a fraud[clarification needed] because the King was unlawfully divorced from his former wife and because he deserted Doña Juana after their wedding night.
In 1464, King Henry IV of Castile gave the town as a lordship to his favorite nobleman, Beltrán de La Cueva, the first Duke of Alburquerque. Since then, the town has been bound to this family. The duke's great-grandson was raised as a marquess.[2]
In the 17th century, the town suffered a recession, along with many cities and villages in the country. The monarchy moved to Madrid and settled the royal court within this city, which forced the aristocracy to relocate to Madrid. It was also a period of poverty, due to the decadence of the wool trade, the taxes to pay for prior wars, and the various plagues that ravaged the country.[1]
In the 18th century, laws enacted by Charles III allowed Cuéllar to recover some of its social and economic prosperity.
When Napoleon invaded Spain, Cuéllar was looted by the French troops, who stole all the treasuries from the churches, monasteries, and the castle. They were never recovered.
In 1833, the writer and politician Jose de Espronceda was exiled to Cuéllar because of his liberalism. Espronceda wrote the novel Sancho Saldaña o el Castellano de Cuéllar when he lived near the church of Santo Tomé.
During the Spanish Civil War, the town remained part of the country controlled by nationalist forces, so its churches were preserved from destruction. Cuéllar Castle served as headquarters to the fascist Italian troops, and later as a prison for different political prisoners. Many years after, the castle became a hospital for consumption patients and a jail for criminals. Today it functions as a high school and tourism center. Due to local agricultural production, the people of Cuéllar were affected less after the civil war and did not emigrate as much as other people in the region.
Cuéllar is located in the heart of the natural region of Tierra de Pinares, on the border of the province of Segovia, where it meets the province of Valladolid, 60 km and 50 km respectively from both capitals. It is bordered to the north by Bahabón, Campaspero, Torrescárcela and Viloria, all in the province of Valladolid; to the west by Chañe, Arroyo de Cuéllar, Samboal, San Cristóbal de Cuéllar and Vallelado; to the south by Gomezserracín, Pinarejos, Samboal, San Martín y Mudrián and Sanchonuño and to the east by Frumales and Olombrada, all in the province of Segovia. Its exact coordinates are 41°24′10″N 4°19′12″E / 41.40278°N 4.32000°E / 41.40278; 4.32000 and it is 857.93 m above sea level.
Until 2008, its municipal area covered an area of 272.4 km², but in that year the Junta de Castilla y León recognised the town's ownership of the mountain called Común Grande de las Pegueras, and ruled that it belonged to Cuéllar, increasing the municipality's area by 74.46 km².[3]
Due to its location in the centre of the northern plateau, it has a gentle topography, except in the large gorge that delimits its municipal area along with the river Cega. From a geological point of view, three zones can be distinguished: a quaternary mass characterised by a sandy terrain with lush vegetation, a Miocenic mass in which the soil is primarily clay, and another belonging to the Pliocene epoch, which is mixed with the previous one.[4]
The municipality had a population of 9,730 inhabitants according to the municipal register of inhabitants (INE) on 1 January 2010, divided between 4,929 men and 4,801 women. The figure includes the municipal capital, and the neighbourhoods and smaller local entities belonging to the municipality since 1981. The total is divided as follows: Cuéllar (8,374), Arroyo de Cuéllar (381), Chatún (262), Campo de Cuéllar (221), Torregutiérrez (126), Dehesa Mayor (112), Lovingos (96), Escarabajosa de Cuéllar (79), Fuentes de Cuéllar (48) and Dehesa (31). It is therefore the municipality with the largest number of inhabitants in the province, with the exception of the capital.[6]
The demographic history of Cuéllar was influenced by the discovery of America in the 15th century, due to the large number of cuellaranos[definition needed] who travelled to the new lands and changed the demographic course of the town. It could not be reliably studied until the year 1528 when the first complete population census appeared. By the end of the 16th century Cuéllar's population totalled around 3,000, attributed to a growth derived from the new economy, which was mainly devoted to agriculture to the detriment of livestock farming, and from becoming a migratory enclave for nearby towns that sought the tax advantages offered by the town to foreigners.[7]
At the beginning of the 17th century, there was a significant decline at the end of the 16th century, when the population of Cuéllar dropped to 2,400 inhabitants; in 1751, it had 2,194 inhabitants. The recovery of the kingdom in the 18th century and the commercial and economic importance of the town again allowed for immigration, reaching 3,000 inhabitants in the mid-19th century.[8] In the 20th century, one of the greatest population growths was recorded between 1930 and 1940, with more than 2,000 inhabitants, as well as in the period between 1970 and 1975, the most fruitful period in the demography of Cuéllar in that century, although this was because it incorporated the disappeared municipalities of Arroyo de Cuéllar, Campo de Cuéllar, Chatún, Dehesa, Fuentes de Cuéllar and Lovingos into its territory in 1971.[9] At the end of the 1980s, the population fell by 300, but began to recover again from the 1990s onwards, rising steadily until the present day. Factors include immigration from the surrounding municipalities and its industries and services, which have made it an economic and commercial centre in the area.
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