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Municipality of Santa Fe de Mondújar (Almería Province, Andalusia, Spain)

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image by Wikipedia User:Miguillen, 02 Aug 2009

Introduction
Description

See also:

Introduction

The municipality of Santa Fe de Mondújar (511 inhabitants in 2008; 3,500 ha) is located on river Andarax, 20 km north of Almería.

The first settlement, Mondújar, of Moorish origin, was located south of today's village, on the river, near the remains of a Roman tower watching the way linking Acci (Guadix) and Urci (Pechina). The geographer and traveler Al-Idrisi described the tower of Mondújar as a red tower built on the top of a hill and flanked by an inn. Around it a small village was inhabited by 176, fed by estates ("alquerías") located in Guechen (Huéchar) and on the today's site of Santa Fe. At that time, Mondújar formed, together with Marchena and Boloduy, the district of Orx Casi.

After the expelling of the Moriscos, the village of Santa Fe was built from scratch in 1573 to replace the deserted villages of Mondújar and Huéchar, as the main center of resettlement. In the 18th century, José de Creaga, Marquis of Torre Alta and a descendant of the Almería Infant, Cidi Yahaya al-Nayar, a former governor of the Moorish "taha" of Marchena, built the tower subsequently named for him and still visible in the village.

In the 19th century, the development of Santa Fe, whose population peaked at 1,218, was boosted by grape cultivation; a railway line was initiated in 1877 to transport grape and ore from Gádor and Alquife. The first railway bridge of Santa Fe, designed in Gustave Eiffel's workshop, was inaugurated in 1893; it was superseded only in 1973 by a modern bridge. In 1911, the first electric railway line in Spain was operated on the slopes between the stations of Santa Fe and Gérgal; a power plant built near the river supplied the required electricity until 1959, when fuel-powered locomotives superseded the electric ones. Grape cultivation declined in the 20th century and was replaced by citrus cultivation; the today's Santa Fe landscape is an orange monoculture, in spite of diversification attempts, for instance with olive trees and new varieties of grapes.

Source: Los Millares website

Santa Fe de Mondújar is mostly known for the Prehistoric remains of Los Millares. In 1887, two Belgian mining engineers, the brothers Louis (1869-1934) and Henri (d. 1905) Siret published "Les premiers âges du metal dans le sud-est de l´Espagne" (The early ages of ore in the south-east of Spain), revealing the archeological richness of Andalusia. Among the emblematic sites is the village excavated from 1892 onwards in the place called Los Millares, which was inhabited in 2700-1800 BC and is considered as the best preserved settlement from the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) in Europe. The village could host up to 1,000, living in circular huts of 4-7 m in diameter; paved with stones, the village had mills and silos. Four successive walls were built following the increase of the village, with a length of 310 m, therefore the bigger ever found in Europe from that time, and a height of 4 m; every 2-5 meters, the wall was defended by a tower and there was a complex system of gates. The necropolis includes 100 collective, tumulus-like tombs ("tholoi"). The village had remote defenses, made of a system of 15 complex fortresses built on the neighbouring hills. The village itself was built on a flat spur flanked on two sides by rivers and therefore easy to defend; moreover, it was located not far from either the sea or the copper mines. The inhabitants of the village built ovens to smelt copper ore; remains of crucibles and awns have shown that they had started to use copper instead of stone to produce some specific tools. The place gave its name to the Culture of Los Millares, which spread to Andalucia, Levante and Portugal. Henri Siret offerred most of his foundings to the Spanish state, which created the Provincial Archeological Museum of Almería (Royal Decree of 28 Marh 1934) to keep them.

Source: Los Millares website

Ivan Sache, 02 Aug 2009

Description

The flag and arms of Santa Fe de Mondújar were approved by the Municipal Council on 2 November 2004 and submitted on 17 November 2004 to the General Directorate of Local Administration, which confirmed them by Decree on 14 December 2004, published in the Andalusian official gazette (Boletín Oficial de la Junta de Andalucía, BOJA) No. 252 on 28 December 2004.

The relevant parts of the Decree are the following:

Coat of arms: With a single quarter. Azure, on waves argent and azure a viaduct or masoned sable and surmounted by a campaniform vase or. The shield surmounted with a Royal crown closed.

Flag: Rectangular panel in proportions 1:1.5 made of five parallel stripes perpendicular to the hoist; the first and the fifth turquoise blue, 1/3 of the flag hoist; the second and the fourth, golden yellow, 1/12 of the hoist, and the third, turquoise blue, of 1/6 of the hoist. In the middle of the panel the municipal coat of arms in which or and argent are replaced by yellow and white, respectively.

The symbols should be registered on the Andalusian Register of Local Entities, with their official written description and graphics (as originally submitted, but unfortunately not appended to the Decree).

Source: BOJA, No. 252, p. 29,565, 28 Dec 2004

The old viaduct of Santa Fe de Mondújar represented on the arms can be seen on a photo by Fulgencio Soriano.

The campaniform (bell-shaped) vase is a specific element of the Los Millares Culture: see a photo of such a vase, together with a reconstitution of the village of Los Millares.

Ivan Sache, 02 Aug 2009