| Municipality of Daroca |
 |
| Information |
| Region: |
Aragon |
| Province: |
Zaragoza  |
| Comarca: |
Campo de Daroca |
| Area: |
51.91 km² |
| Population: |
2,155 (2004) |
| Population Density: |
41.51 p/km² |
| Elevation: |
797 m |
| Postcode: |
50360 |
| Coordenates: |
|
| Distance: |
115.8 km from Zaragoza |
| Mayor: |
José Álvaro Blasco Martín (PSOE) |
| Demonym: |
darocense |
Daroca is a city and
municipality in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain
, situated to
the south of the city of Zaragoza. It
is the center of a judicial district.
It is
located in the basin of Calatayud
, in the valley of the rio
Jiloca.
History
According to certain writers, the primitive
Celtiberian village in this location was named
Darek.
The
Romans named it Agiria, building a strong castle to defend the
Laminium road, which passed through the village and connected
Zaragoza with Valencia
.
The Arabs gave it the name Calat-Darawca (862), and possessed it
for 400 years, until
Alfonso the
Battler conquered it in 1120, and in 1141 issued a primitive
legal code, which is unknown today. In the 12th century,
Ramon Berenguer IV gave it the laws and
privileges which made it the capital of the Community of Daroca,
which had a great social and military influence in the Middle Ages.
It had a vote in courts and was the site of several famous
assemblies: 1196 (
Pedro II),
1222-1243 (
James I), 1311
(
James II), and 1338 (
Pedro IV), in which peace was arranged
with
Castile. In a war against
Pedro of Castile, Daroca resisted a
siege, which led to the awarding of the status
of city on April 26, 1366.
City life was ruled by the council, whose principal members were
the justice, judge, jurors,
almutazaf, scribes,
major-domos, and other minor officials. The terms for municipal
offices lasted one year, and they were elected by the council. The
justice was appointed by the king from a set of three candidates
chosen by the council, and the judge and jurors were chosen by the
king directly. All of this occurred on
January
1. Economically, agriculture and livestock were the principal
occupations of the inhabitants. There were three social groups,
Christians, Jews, and Muslims, which enjoyed the same laws and
privileges, although they were organized separately.
The city
served as a frequent stop for journeys to places in the area, and
was visited by the Catholic
Monarchs, Charles I, Philip II, and Philip III, on his route from Madrid
to Zaragoza
and Catalonia
. Philip V
also was in Daroca and so was his rival to the throne,
Charles II. After the death of Charles
II, Daroca embraced the cause of the Austrian pretender to the
throne,
Charles III, instead of
the French-backed candidate
Philip,
duke of Anjou, which led to the occupation and sacking of the
city in the
War of Spanish
Succession.
This ended almost six centuries of municipal autonomy: the office
of the justice disappeared, and was substituted for a royal
magistrate; the council was reorganized to remove the jurors and
add eight regents, a secretary, and two joint deputies. During the
Peninsular War,
Napoleon's troops entered Daroca in June 1808,
destroying a good part of the Dominican convent, and returned
periodically to control the city and attack the resistance; later
the French left a permanent garrison. Daroca was liberated in
August 1813. France had taken
Ferdinand VI of Spain prisoner, and
when he returned in 1814, he stayed in Daroca, and communicated a
new constitution.
During the
Carlist wars of the nineteenth
century, it was occupied by the Carlist forces in 1834, 1837, and
1872, but all of these were sporadic because Daroca remained loyal
to the monarchy of
Isabel II.
The
occupations were due to the geographical proximity of the Carlist
redoubt of Maestrazgo
.
From the middle of the nineteenth century, the economic situation
improved due to successful agriculture, which spurred the
development of commerce and small industry.
At the beginning of
the twentieth century, the Teruel
-Calatayud
railway was built, which strengthened the commercial position of
Daroca. In these years, embankments were built in the Jiloca
gorge and there was reforestation in an attempt to avoid the
disasters caused by periodic flooding. Afterwards the city began to
decline, although it kept its position thanks to the
industrialization and the mechanization of the field. However, it
was not able to adapt to the new times and the markets began to
disappear. Today there is an attempt to revitalize commerce and
potentially
tourism, but agriculture is
suffering a difficult reversal, because there are no young people
in the area to carry on the traditional
viticulture and
horticulture, and the fields are filling with
forest plants.
Population history
| Population decline in the municipality from 1991 to
2004 |
| 1991 |
1996 |
2001 |
2004 |
| 2351 |
2335 |
2212 |
2155 |
Places of interest
- More than 4 km of medieval walls
- Gates: Puerta Baja, Puerta Alta, Portal de Valencia and
Arrabal
- Church of San Miguel.
- Church of San Juan.
- Church of Santo Domingo.
- Basilica of Santa María de los Sagrados Corporales, associated
with a Eucharistic miracle dated to 1340 (ex-collegiate
church)
- Fountain of the twenty pipes
Events
- Festival of Antique Music (August).
External links
Wikis
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