Photos

Hello fellow today I propose two views of the beautiful town of Arcos de la Frontera taken from the bridge of the dam lake, the only difference between allas is light, hope you like.

Arcos de la Frontera is a Spanish municipality in the province of Cadiz, Andalusia. It is the most populous municipality in the region of Sierra de Cadiz and also the largest. It is an important place for tourism and industry within the district, and has a strategic position between the countryside and the Highlands Jerez. It also has a rich past, having been the capital of the Taifa de Arcos in the Muslim period and capital of the Duchy of Arcos from 1493.

Like most of the people of this province, its location has been occupied by man since prehistoric times. Arcos, by its own geographical location has become all times a strategic place. The name of Arx-Arcis (high strength) comes from its Roman foundation, when the settlement appears as "coloniae Arcensium" another Roman settlement was Santiscal.

During the Muslim era its name is Arkos, emerging as a real city prosperous and flourishing. At the time of dependent Emirate of Damascus (711-757) belonged to the "Cora" of Sidon. He became the eleventh century, in a small Taifa kingdom under the rule of Ben Jazrum king of Berber origin. During this period the site of the town was walled and although there is no certainty that colmataran all land with buildings, has remained a complex network of apples, this time from the layout of its streets, the military fortress, the walls , mills, etc.

In 1255 and in 1264, King Alfonso X Castile took the city, being transferred to Prince Henry, but returned to royal hands due to its border. In 1300 received the rank of council.

In 1408 the king puts the city in the hands of his favorite Ruy Lopez Davalos, to grant it to the Ponce de Leon in 1440, Dukes of Arcos, well into the eighteenth century, reaching its zenith between the fifteenth and seventeenth century. In the fifteenth century founded the Discalced Franciscan Hospice and another near the Church of San Pedro. The City Council is transferred to the Plaza del Castillo. The jail was moved to a house where they later built the Convent of Mercy nuns. In the Plaza del Castillo stood the granary and behind the house slaughterhouse.

From the sixteenth century began the construction of the Convent of San Francisco (1510), the religious of St. John Lateran (1539), the Hospital of San Roque and San Pedro. Also began the construction of a new slaughterhouse outside the Puerta de Jerez. During the eighteenth century urban expansion occurs that exceeds the length of its Arab walls.

In 1706, Felipe V granted the title of Noble and Faithful. The Lisbon earthquake of 1755, changed its face, affecting the Churches of St. Mary, St. Peter and St. Augustine, sinking the north wall of the castle, which fell to the pit and bury it, gave rise to the Rue Neuve.

During the eighteenth century, the town developed outside the walled definitely, when three enclaves: the neighborhood of the log, the more upscale, with the homes of the bourgeoisie, Hospital San Juan de Dios, Carlos III Granary, Inn the Duke and Church of San Miguel, the barrio of San Francisco, around the Church of the Franciscans of the sixteenth century, which is the Chapel of the Waters, and the slum, whose origin may be in a Moorish settlement Cómpeta the current quarter.

In the nineteenth century, besides the yellow fever epidemic and the passage of the French, which caused damage to the Castle and Plaza, the most important to the heritage of Arcos is the confiscation of Mendizabal. Transformations occur and religious buildings offered for sale rural ecclesiastical possessions, which stopped the incipient industrial development, the transformation of industrial promoters landowners.

In the twentieth century improves quality of life and is a development of the tourism industry in the period 1950-70 being when the single fastest growing city. Until the early sixties into a ring concentric growth. But from this decade, when they begin to appear new types of building (blocks and detached houses, semi-detached and row) raised on new paths, which threaten both the original walled Old Town, as the first area of ​​growth and settlement Traditional. In the XXI century has become the entrance of the White Towns of Andalusia and a Historic-Artistic. Along with its breathtaking scenery, make prime tourist destination in the province of Cadiz, which is their main source of income.

Source Wikipedia.