Lora de Estepa is a city located in the

province of Seville The Province of Seville ( es, Sevilla) is a province of southern Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Málaga, Cádiz in the south, Huelva in the west, Badajoz in the north and ...

, Spain. According to the 2006

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

(

INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * Instituto Nacional de Estadística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional de Estatística (disambiguation) * Instituto Nacional Ele ...

), the city has a population of 831 inhabitants.

History

Prehistory

The area around Lora de Estepa has been inhabited by humans since

Paleolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός '' palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone to ...

times. Local caves were used as tombs during the

Copper Age The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "Rock (geology), stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin ''wikt:aeneus, aeneus'' "of copper"), is an list of archaeologi ...

, and later on people from the

Tartessos Tartessos ( es, Tarteso) is, as defined by archaeological discoveries, a historical civilization settled in the region of Southern Spain characterized by its mixture of local Paleohispanic and Phoenician traits. It had a proper writing system ...

and

Iberian Iberian refers to Iberia. Most commonly Iberian refers to: *Someone or something originating in the Iberian Peninsula, namely from Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. The term ''Iberian'' is also used to refer to anything pertaining to the f ...

cultures settled in the region.

Roman era

The area was eventually

conquered Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, t ...

and colonized by Romans. It has been speculated that Lora de Estepa might have been the Roman town of "Lauro" that is mentioned by Florus in his ''Epitome of Roman history, Book 2''. If this identification is correct, Lora de Estepa was the site of an important battle of

Caesar's Civil War Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was one of the last politico-military conflicts of the Roman Republic before its reorganization into the Roman Empire. It began as a series of political and military confrontations between Gaius Julius Caesar ...

in 45 BC, during which Caesarian forces cornered and killed Gnaeus Pompeius the Younger, son of

Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus 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 ...

. Equating Lauro with Lora de Estepa is, however, still speculative and strongly disputed among historians. In any case, the Roman town at Lora de Estepa was known as "Olaurum" by the 1st century, and served as regional hub for communication and trade. In course of the

late antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English has ...

(4th-7th century) Olaurum was largely abandoned, as its population was ruralized and moved to numerous minor hamlets at the nearby villae.

Medieval history

After the

Umayyad conquest of Hispania The Umayyad conquest of Hispania, also known as the Umayyad conquest of the Visigothic Kingdom, was the initial expansion of the Umayyad Caliphate over Hispania (in the Iberian Peninsula) from 711 to 718. The conquest resulted in the decline of t ...

, the local settlement came to be known as "Al-auriat". Little is known of the town's history under Muslim rule, though the whole region was only sparsely inhabited during this time. The town was

by the Christians in 1250 and given to the

Order of Santiago The Order of Santiago (; es, Orden de Santiago ), is a religious and military order founded in the 12th century. It owes its name to the Patron Saint of Spain, "Santiago" (St. James the Greater). Its initial objective was to protect the pilgri ...

, but remained a contested war zone until the Christian conquest of

Antequera Antequera () is a city and municipality in the Comarca de Antequera, province of Málaga, part of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is known as "the heart of Andalusia" (''el corazón de Andalucía'') because of its central loc ...

in 1410. Afterwards, the region's population increased again, and by the 16th century the local town was known as "Lorilla" or "Lora Menor".

References

Works cited

* *

External links

Lora de Estepa
- Sistema de Información Multiterritorial de Andalucía {{authority control Municipalities of the Province of Seville