Itinerary Through the Historical Heritage of Abdera |
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There is an increasing demand for quality tourism joined to the Historic and Natural Heritage, people are more and more willing to spend their free time visiting the territory.
That is why you might want to visit the permanent exhibition that evokes the daily life of Adra in Roman times. Some of the objects in the exhibition came from the archaeological site of “El Cerro de Montecristo” (8th century BC) El Cerro de Montecristo is a natural elevation over sea level where the population of Abdera , (Adra today) settled. Abdera was a very important city in the antiquity because of its Phoenician foundation.
A lot of excavations have been carried out in this place. The first took place in the 1970s. Then, Punic houses (4th century BC) and remains of the Roman Republican period, High-imperial and Low-imperial were found. In 1986 a new excavation documented the Phoenician occupation. Nowadays, the city is working for the valuation of the site.
There are many written allusions to Abdera in antiquity: Estrabón mentions it when he describes the south Mediterranean coast, saying it was a Phoenician foundation, the same as Sexi (Almuñécar). |
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Similarly, P. Mela and Plinio write about Abdera together with other cities of the south coast of the peninsula.
We know now for sure that the town of Abdera was a Phoenician foundation of the VIII century BC. The town was typically Phoenician, organized along the mouth of the River Adra, on a hill over the sea, and it overviewed the river estuary. |
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Later it was inhabited by the Romans, and this fact made Abdera important in the middle and eastern Mediterranean, especially for the commercialization of salted fish and the “garum”, a Roman delicacy. During the III century there was a decay and the next century a slight recovery which lasted till the VII century, although never at the same level of importance reached in the High Empire. There are documented contacts with the Byzantines in the V-VI centuries. In fact, from 555, all the south coast was under Byzantine dominion. Around the year 621 this area probably joined the Visigoth kingdom of Toledo.
There are not many references of Arab Medieval authors to Adra. Halfway through the XII century, the geographer Al-Idrisí stated it was a small “city”, with several neighborhoods and some depending farmsteads around. The economy was essentially agricultural and it had baths and a corn exchange to store goods. Around the middle of the XIV century, Ibn al-Jatib, the prime minister of the Nazari kingdom of Granada, mentions the “castle of Adra” in the Alpujarra of the Banú Hassán.
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In 1505, when Juana I of Castille was the Queen, some fortified towers and the walls that surround the town were built to protect and defend the population from pirate attacks and also occasionally from the Moorish living in the inner Alpujarra. Written and graphic accounts show the location of the castle, near the Plaza Ortiz de Villajos (Ortiz de Villajos Square) and the existence of two gates in the walls surrounding the town: la Puerta del Mar (Plaza del Ayuntamiento-Town Hall Square) and the Puerta Alta (Ortiz de Villajos Square).
Since the XVI century and especially in the XVII century there was a significant demographic growth due to the introduction and production of the sugar cane. This originated the different enlargements of the Church of “Santa María de la Encarnación” (XVI-XIX century) to its final three naves. After a Turk assault in 1620 it becomes a fortified church as defensive parapets added to the building show. Inside the church you can admire the Baroque carving el Cristo de la Expiración(1623), by the famous sculptor from Granada Alonso de Mena y Escalante.
Another sample of religious architecture is the Hermitage of San Sebastián (XVII-XVIII). It is a building with a floor in Latin Cross built in 1680 and then rebuilt in 1751. The Virgen del Mar, patron saint of Adra, is inside.
An example of civil architecture is the Casas Barrocas (Baroque Houses) from the XVIII century. These houses were built by the Genoese family Gnecco, who developed a big commercial activity in Adra.
The mining exploitation of the Sierra de Gádor goes back to Phoenician and Roman times, but it was after the reform introduced by Carlos III , with the creation of the Dirección General de Minas, that the basis was established for the great expansion of the mining that took place in the XIX century.
Adra was the main port for the transport of the lead from the Sierra de Gádor to the rest of the European markets. In 1822, the factory “Rein and Cia”, who came from Málaga, built the Lead Foundry of San Andrés in Adra, bringing in 1827 one of the first steam engines to Spain. After the company bankruptcy, in 1837 Manuel Agustín de Heredia bought it and gave it the most modern technology. At present, of this mining complex only la Fábrica del Vinagre (The Vinegar Factory, now the Art Centre) is left, together with la Torre de los Perdigones (The Tower of los Perdigones), a 45m high engineering feat which is the representative image of the city. |
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