Calahorra [] ( an, Calagorra, la, Calagurris) is a municipality in the comarca of Rioja Baja, near the border with Navarre on the right bank of the Ebro. During Ancient Rome, Ancient Roman times, Calahorra was a municipium known as ''Calagurris Nassica Iulia''.

Location

The city is located on a hill at an altitude of 358 metres at the confluence of the Ebro and

Cidacos The Cidacos River is a tributary of the Ebro. Its source is Los Campos, in Soria, and it flows for 77 km (48 mi) until its reaches the Ebro at Calahorra (La Rioja). It flows through or past various towns like Villar del Río, Yanguas ...

rivers, and has an area of 91.41 km². Calahorra is the second-largest city in La Rioja in population and importance, after the capital,

Logroño Logroño () is the capital of the province of La Rioja, situated in northern Spain. Traversed in its northern part by the Ebro River, Logroño has historically been a place of passage, such as the Camino de Santiago. Its borders were disputed b ...

. Its population is 21,060 people. It is well-connected to other cities, especially by highway. It is situated in the Ebro valley, 48 kilometres from Logroño, 120 km from

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

and 180 km from

Bilbao ) , motto = , image_map = , mapsize = 275 px , map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao , pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe , pushpin_map_caption ...

, and is connected to these cities by national highway 232, the A-68 motorway ( Vasco-Aragonesa) and the Bilbao-Zaragoza rail line. Its daily bus services link it to such cities as

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

Soria Soria () is a municipality and a Spanish city, located on the Douro river in the east of the autonomous community of Castile and León and capital of the province of Soria. Its population is 38,881 ( INE, 2017), 43.7% of the provincial populati ...

and San Sebastián. Its status as seat of a ''comarca'' and judicial district make it a service-industry city in administrative, commercial and leisure fields.

History

Calahorra has been inhabited since the Paleolithic, and its stable population dates to the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

conquered the town in 187 BC and brought it to its highest point of importance as an administrative centre for surrounding regions. Calahorra supported

Quintus Sertorius Quintus Sertorius (c. 126 – 73 BC) was a Roman general and statesman who led a large-scale rebellion against the Roman Senate on the Iberian peninsula. He had been a prominent member of the populist faction of Cinna and Marius. During the l ...

in his war against

Pompey Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (; 29 September 106 BC – 28 September 48 BC), known in English as Pompey or Pompey the Great, was a leading Roman general and statesman. He played a significant role in the transformation of ...

, whom the city resisted successfully since 76 BC. It was only taken four years later by Pompey's legate Lucius Afranius, after a lot of inhabitants had died from starvation and there had occurred cannibalism.

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...

and Augustus Caesar gave the city (then named ''Calagurris'') numerous distinctions, converted it into a municipality, and developed its city planning, economy, and politics. Its archeological remains show that it had a circus, baths, an amphitheatre, and other services found in large cities. It minted money and served as a justice administration centre. Quintilian, well known for his descriptions of the culture of that time, was born in Calahorra, and the

Parador A ''parador'' (), in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries was an establishment where travelers could seek lodging, and usually, food and drink, similar to an inn. In Spain since 1928, a Parador is a state-owned luxury hotel, usually locat ...

in the city is named after him. It has Roman ruins in the grounds. Saints Emeterius and Celedonius, martyred in the city around 305 AD, are the

patron saints A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, or Eastern Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family, or person. I ...

of the city, and the city's coat of arms depict their names. The cathedral is dedicated to them. The Christian Roman poet Prudentius may have inhabited at some point in Calahorra, who pinpoints it on the territory of the

Vascones The Vascones were a pre-Roman tribe who, on the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century, inhabited a territory that spanned between the upper course of the Ebro river and the southern basin of the western Pyrenees, a region that coincides wi ...

in the 4th century. After the rule of the

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or ...

in the 9th and 10th centuries the Christian king

García Sánchez III of Pamplona García Sánchez III ( eu, Gartzea III.a Sanoitz; 1012 – 1 September 1054),''Europäische Stammtafeln'': II #56, III.1 #145; Moriarty, ''Plantagenet Ancestry of King Edward III and Queen Philippa of Hainault'', p80, 109 nicknamed García from ...

captured the city in 1045. The population had reached 7,000 by the 1840s.''The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol.IV'', (1848) London, Charles Knight, p.19

Politics

Places of Interest

* Calahorra Cathedral

Twin cities

Monte Compatri Monte Compatri () is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Rome in the Italian region Latium, located about southeast of Rome on the Alban Hills. It is one of the Castelli Romani. History Monte Compatri has been identified w ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Caussade Caussade is a commune in the district of Montauban, located in the Tarn-et-Garonne department in the Occitanie region in the south of France. Caussade, an ancient city of the white Quercy or lower Quercy, it is located in the hills of Quercy ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Gallery

File:Catedral de Calahorra01.jpg, Cathedral of Calahorra (main facade). File:The_Chapel_at_la_Calahorra_Castle.jpg, Chapel of the Calahorra Castle, from an albumen print taken by the French photographer Jean Laurent, c. 1865-1881 File:Calahorra-Cidacos.jpg, View of Calahorra

References

External links

Official Web Site

Calahorra (La Rioja) Web Site

{{Authority control Municipalities in La Rioja (Spain) Vascones Coloniae (Roman)