Villarrubia de los Ojos is a

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

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

located in the

province of Ciudad Real The province of Ciudad Real () is a province in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It is bordered by the provinces of Cuenca, Albacete, Jaén, Córdoba, Badajoz, and Toledo. It is partly located i ...

Castilla–La Mancha Castilla–La Mancha (, , ), or Castile La Mancha, is an autonomous community of Spain. Comprising the provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toledo, it was created in 1982. The government headquarters are in Toledo, and ...

. The municipality spans across a total area of 281.86 km² and, as of 1 January 2020, it has a registered population of 9,762.

Geography

The Ojos del Guadiana are located within the Villarrubia de los Ojos municipal territory. They are the source of the

Guadiana The Guadiana River (, also , , ), or Odiana, is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from the e ...

river, the fourth longest river of the Iberian peninsula. There's also a National Park, the

Tablas de Daimiel National Park Tablas de Daimiel National Park (''Parque Nacional de las Tablas de Daimiel'') is a wetland on the La Mancha plain, a mainly arid area in the province of Ciudad Real. With an area of about 3,000 hectares, the park is the smallest of Spain's fift ...

located in the Tablas de Daimiel wetlands, shared with the neighbouring municipality,

Daimiel Daimiel is a municipality in Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It has a population of 17,342, and a mechanical industry. The football club is Daimiel CF. The Tablas de Daimiel National Park, a well-known but endangered wetland natural res ...

. The landforms of Villarrubia de los Ojos are mountainous in the north and flat in the south. The weather is quite strong with very cold winters and very hot summers. There are some mountains over 1,200 metres and the flat zone is at 550 metres above sea level in the Spanish central plateau.

History

Control over the territory passed from the Order of St. John of Jerusalem to the

Order of Calatrava The Order of Calatrava ( es, Orden de Calatrava, pt, Ordem de Calatrava) was one of the four Spanish military orders and the first military order founded in Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bull confirming the Orde ...

on the wake of the 1212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. The demarcation of the area in the concord of 1232 confirmed the Calatravan control of Villarrubia. Together with

Aldea del Rey Aldea del Rey is a municipality in the province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It has a (decreasing) population of 1.721 (1-1-20.16). Main sights *Castle of Calatrava la Nueva *Renaissance ''Palacio de Clavería'' (15th century), found ...

, Almagro, Bolaños and

, Villarrubia was one of the five towns of the Campo de Calatrava. By the end of the middle ages, Villarrubia, like the rest of the Campo de Calatrava, featured a quite large

mudéjar Mudéjar ( , also , , ca, mudèjar , ; from ar, مدجن, mudajjan, subjugated; tamed; domesticated) refers to the group of Muslims who remained in Iberia in the late medieval period despite the Christian reconquest. It is also a term for M ...

population. In 1502, the Catholic Monarchs granted local

moriscos Moriscos (, ; pt, mouriscos ; Spanish for "Moorish") were former Muslims and their descendants whom the Roman Catholic church and the Spanish Crown commanded to convert to Christianity or face compulsory exile after Spain outlawed the ope ...

from Villarrubia (and the wider Campo) tax exemptions, as if they were for all legal purposes

old christian Old Christian ( es, cristiano viejo, pt, cristão-velho, ca, cristià vell) was a social and law-effective category used in the Iberian Peninsula from the late 15th and early 16th century onwards, to distinguish Portuguese and Spanish people att ...

s. Tightly assimilated into the local society, the moriscos from Villarrubia fiercely refused their decreed expulsion, and the local lord, the (and President of the Council of Portugal), lobbied in order to curb the impact of the measure. Following the two expulsions from 1611 and 1612, most of the expelled moriscos were able to return to Villarrubia.

References

Bibliography

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External links

Web of the City Hall of Villarrubia de los Ojos
Municipalities in the Province of Ciudad Real {{CastileLaMancha-geo-stub