Mora de Rubielos is a municipality located in the

mountainous A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

area of the

Iberian System 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 fo ...

province of Teruel Teruel ( Catalan: ''Terol'' ) is a province of Aragon, in the northeast of Spain. The capital is Teruel. It is bordered by the provinces of Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia (including its exclave Rincón de Ademuz), Cuenca, Guadalajara, and Z ...

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and ; ) is an autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces of Spain, ...

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 ...

. According to the 2009

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

( INE), the municipality has a population of 1,756 inhabitants. Mora de Rubielos has a beautiful 14th-century castle. Mora de Rubielos is the capital of the

Comarca A ''comarca'' (, , , ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain, and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, mark ...

Gúdar-Javalambre Gúdar-Javalambre is a Comarcas of Aragon, comarca in Aragon, Spain. The most important town is Mora de Rubielos. This comarca is located at the southern end of Aragon, bordering the Valencian Community. The area is mountainous with the summits ...

Location and climate

The town of Mora de Rubielos is in the region of Alto Mijares, by the Fuen Lozana river, at the foot of the Sierra de Gúdar. It includes three population types: the farmhouses, whose population is mainly immigrant is dying out; the small towns of Santa Lucía, Troya, The Aliagarico, El Plano, La Cuba and The Masecicos, which retain their population; and the town itself. The town lies at an altitude of ; it has a ''mid-mountain climate'', dry with cold winters and mild summers. Its average annual temperature is and its average rainfall is .

History

During the Middle Ages, the territory of Mora was reconquered by the troops of Alfonso II, being until the take of Rubielos in 1204 the most advanced position of the Christian forces against Muslims in the Kingdom of Valencia. It subsequently underwent a series of donations and sales; Pedro Ladrón in 1198 received the town and castle from the hands of Pedro II, but his successor James I included it in the barony of Jérica, donating it to his natural son Don Jaime. Mora was occupied by the Spanish troops in the

War of the Two Peters The War of the Two Peters (, ), also known as the Castilian–Aragonese War of 1356–1369, was fought from 1356 to 1369 between the crowns of Castile and Aragon. The conflict was a struggle between two claimants to the throne of Castile, Pet ...

but returned to Aragonese hands in 1364, receiving the privilege of Pedro IV for which it undertook not to separate it from the crown. Such privilege was not taken into account, being the town and castle sold to the Viscount of Cardona, Don Hugo, who, in turn, sold to Don Blasco Fernández de Heredia in 1367. Finally, the lineage of the Fernández de Heredia remained as owner of this population, taking charge of it in 1388 Gil Ruiz de Lihori, who changed his name to Juan Fernández de Heredia. In this locality there was a customs office for the collection of taxes on trade with Valencia. In the late fifteenth century Mora acquired the title of ''Marquesado'' and after the War of Succession, as a supporter of Philip V of Bourbon, received the title of "Faithful" and the fleur de lis on its shield. Pascual Madoz, in its geographic-statistical-historical Dictionary of Spain, 1845, describes the town ''divided into two parts, called a new Villa and the other Villa Vieja, which are separated by a small creek or ravine; It consists of about 500 houses of regular construction, being remarkable the city council.'' As for the economy, it highlights the production of wheat, corn, beans, potatoes, onions and vegetables as well as the existence of sheep. The book also mentions the manufacture of brown cloth and how in the past sackcloth for religious communities was manufactured there, but the extinction of these activitiesd had killed the industry, impoverishing the town. Although the War of Independence and the Carlist Wars left their mark on Mora, the greatest role of the town took place during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. In a phase of the

Battle of Teruel The Battle of Teruel was fought in and around the city of Teruel during the Spanish Civil War between December 1937 and February 1938, during the worst Spanish winter in 20 years.Hugh Purcell, p. 95. The battle was one of the bloodiest actions of ...

(1937 - 1938), after the fall of

Andorra Andorra, officially the Principality of Andorra, is a Sovereignty, sovereign landlocked country on the Iberian Peninsula, in the eastern Pyrenees in Southwestern Europe, Andorra–France border, bordered by France to the north and Spain to A ...

and

Alcañiz Alcañiz () is a town and municipality of Teruel province in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. The town is located on the banks of the river Guadalope. Alcañiz is the unofficial capital of the Lower Aragon historical region. It lies ...

, Mora de Rubielos was the capital of the republican-held area. Previously, an episode of insubordination in this village had resulted in the shooting of More than 50 men of the

84th Mixed Brigade The 84th Mixed Brigade (), was a mixed brigade of the Spanish Republican Army in the Spanish Civil War. It was formed in March 1937 with battalions of the Iron Column () and was disbanded after the tragic events at Mora de Rubielos when 46 soldie ...

on January 20, 1938.Carlos Engel, ''Historia de las Brigadas Mixtas del E. P. de la República'', 1999; p. 112 By May 1938, the territory in Republican rule in the province was defended by a set of staggered lines of a hundred kilometers long known as the ''Grande Arche de Mora Rubielos.'' As the war progressed, Mora fell into a difficult situation by the advance of the Franco-led army, remaining in the so-called ''Bolsa de Mora de Rubielos'', until finally, on July 16, the troops of General Varela broke the front near the town. The information of the ''national'' side said ''on the front of Teruel our troops have conducted today ... a profound advance in a front of more than thirty-five kilometers, having taken and passed, in addition to many positions of great importance, the town of Mora de Rubielos''. For a few days the headquarters of General Franco were in the town.

References

External links

* {{authority control Municipalities in the Province of Teruel Geography articles needing translation from Spanish Wikipedia

Location and climate

History

See also

References

External links