Hellín is a city and

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

located in the

province of Albacete Albacete () is a province of central Spain, in the southern part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. As of 2012, Albacete had a population of 402,837 people. Its capital city, also called Albacete, is by road southeast of Madri ...

Castilla–La Mancha Castilla–La Mancha (, ; ) is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Province of Albacete, Albacete, Province of Ciudad Real, Ciudad Real, Province of Cuenca, Cuenca, Province of Guadalajar ...

. The municipality spans across a total area of 781.66 km². As of 1 January 2020, it has a population of 30,200, which makes it the second largest municipality in the province. It belongs to the ''comarca'' of Campos de Hellín.

History

There is an archaeological site at Tolmo de Minateda hill near Hellín, with phases of Iberian,

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and

Visigoth The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied barbarian military group united under the comman ...

occupation. There are archaeological evidences suggesting that the Minateda site may have stood at some point at the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

side of the ''limes''. A tentative identification with the ''Iyih'' mentioned in the Pact of Theodemir has been also proposed. Minateda was thus probably known as ''Madinat Iyyuh'' during the Islamic period. The Arabic name of Hellín was however ''Falyān'', which eventually evolved into 'Felín', and then 'Hellín'. The importance of the

Sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

-rich mining district in the south of the municipality led to the creation of a

mining community A mining community, also known as a mining town or a mining camp, is a community that houses miners. Mining communities are usually created around a mine or a quarry. Historical mining communities Australia * Ballarat, Victoria * Bendi ...

in the area (Las Minas), that became a leading producer of sulfur in southwestern Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries. Railway arrived in the town in 1864, with the opening of the

Chinchilla Chinchilla refers to either of two species ('' Chinchilla chinchilla'' and '' Chinchilla lanigera'') of crepuscular rodents of the parvorder Caviomorpha, and are native to the Andes mountains in South America. They live in colonies called "her ...

–Hellín stretch on 18 January and the Hellín– stretch on 8 October. Hellín was granted the title of city (''ciudad'') in 1898.

Esparto Esparto, halfah grass, or esparto grass is a fiber produced from two species of perennial grasses of north Africa, Spain and Portugal. It is used for crafts, such as cords, basketry, and espadrilles. '' Stipa tenacissima'' and '' Lygeum spar ...

cultivation increased in the first decades of the 20th century, peaking in importance during the

Autarky Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems. Autarky as an ideology or economic approach has been attempted by a range of political ideologies and movement ...

period of the

Francoist dictatorship Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

, with the expansion of irrigated crops.

Culture

Main celebrations, such as the processions and the traditional ''tamborada'' (drumming), declared of international tourist interest, occur during the

Holy Week Holy Week () commemorates the seven days leading up to Easter. It begins with the commemoration of Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus on Spy Wednesday (Holy Wednes ...

(in Spanish, ''Semana Santa'').

Climate

Hellín has a

cold semi-arid climate Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute thermodynamic ...

(''BSk'' on the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

) with mild winters, hot summers and scarce precipitation throughout the year. Winters are milder compared to the western regions of the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, as its lower altitude contributes to milder temperatures in winter and warmer temperatures in summer. Furthermore, its location in the southeast of the ''

Meseta Central The ''Meseta Central'' (, sometimes referred to in English as Inner Plateau) is one of the basic geographical units of the Iberian Peninsula. It consists of a plateau covering a large part of the latter's interior. Developed during the 19th cent ...

'' contributes to greater aridity, being one of the driest areas of

. Hellín recorded the highest temperature ever recorded in

during a month of February, which was .

Main sights

* Church of la Asunción

Notable people

* Maria Baldó i Massanet (1884–1964), teacher, feminist, folklorist, and liberal politician * Ginés de Boluda, composer * Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, biochemist & pharmacologist *

Josico José Joaquín Moreno Verdú (born 6 January 1975), known as Josico, is a Spanish former Association football, footballer who played as a defensive midfielder, currently a Manager (association football), manager. His 16-year professional career ...

, footballer *

Manuel Castells Manuel Castells Oliván (; born 9 February 1942) is a Spanish sociologist. He is well known for his authorship of a trilogy of works, entitled '' The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture''. He is a scholar of the information society, c ...

, sociologist

Twinned cities

Paysandú Paysandú () is the capital and most populous city of the Paysandú Department in western Uruguay. Located on the banks of the Uruguay River, it is the country's List of cities in Uruguay, fourth-largest city and a vital cultural and economic hu ...

, Uruguay *

Rivello Rivello (''Rëviell'' in Lucanian Dialect, the rivellese dialect) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata. The population was 2,515 as of March 2024. Geography Territory The town sit ...

, Italy

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * *

External links

*
Official website

Web oficial de Turismo de Hellín
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellin Municipalities of the Province of Albacete