Alcalá de Henares () is a Spanish municipality of the Community of Madrid. Housing is primarily located on the north bank of the Henares. , it has a population of 203,208, making it the region's third-most populated municipality.
Predated by earlier hilltop settlements (oppida) and the primitive Complutum on the left bank of the Henares, the new Roman settlement of Complutum was founded in the mid 1st century on the right bank (north) river meadow, becoming a bishopric seat in the 5th century. One of the several Muslim citadels in the Middle March of al-Andalus (hence the name Alcalá, a derivative of the Arabic term for citadel) was established on the left bank, while, after the Christian conquest culminated , the bulk of the urban nucleus returned to the right bank. For much of the late middle-ages and the early modern period before becoming part of the province of Madrid, Alcalá de Henares was a seigneurial estate of the archbishops of Toledo. Under patronage of Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros, Alcalá was transformed into a college town in the 16th century in the wake of the creation of the University of Alcalá.
Its historical centre is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites.
Name The name Alcalá comes from the Arabic word , in connection to the fortress of (Qal'at Abd'Al-Salam). The appendix of Henares (archaically Fenares) referring to the river, thought to be derived either from the Latin foenarius or the Arabic en-Nahr, is recorded for the first time in 1257, as a way to differentiate the town from the Islamic fortress.
Its Latin name, , means "confluence", where rivers' water (or rain water) flow into one place (i.e., a ). = "They called the place where rain waters flowed together ."
History
Inhabited since the Chalcolithic phase of the Bronze Age, the territory was conquered by Romans in the 1st century BC. They built the town of Complutum near a previous Carpetanian settlement, Iplacea. With 10,000 inhabitants, it reached the status of municipium and had its own governing institutions. It played an important role, located on the Roman road connecting Emerita Augusta and Caesaraugusta. In the late 5th century, Complutum declined.
In Late Antiquity, population underwent ruralization and dispersion into scattered settlements beyond the ruined Roman center; those included the so-called Campus Laudabilis (the germ of the current urban centre and where tradition claims the martyrdom of the boys Justus and Pastor took place)— and around the ).
After the Islamic conquest of the Iberian peninsula, the territory became part of the eastern districts of the Middle March of Al-Andalus, primarily controlled by Berber lineages of the Banū Sālim, who seemed to be, at least outwardly, loyal to Umayyad central authority. The hills on the Henares' left bank were repopulated, with archaeological evidence pointing at least to the 9th century. The settlement grew, from watchtower to , and then a larger citadel, , hence the name of Alcalá. The plains (presumably with sizeable Mozarab population) were however not fully abandoned during the middle ages. As it emerged the pressing need to defend the Tagus line from Christian advances in the 10th century, the fortification and the surrounding urban developments (with up to two neighborhoods beyond the walls) grew in size.
On 3 May 1118, the territory was conquered by the Archbishop of Toledo Bernard de Sedirac at behest of the Kingdom of Castile. Soon after, on 10 February 1129, Alfonso VII gave Alcalá to Raymond de Sauvetât, also Archbishop of Toledo, becoming an archiepiscopal property for centuries to come. Raymond granted the town an old fuero (charter) in 1135. The document acknowledged a doublet of settlements, mentioning the castle and the town. Throughout the middle ages, presumably also including 11th-century Islamic Alcalá, the place also had a Jewish population, protected by the Archishops of Toledo under Christian rule, whose aljama should have had a size of about 750 by 1292. As warfare was left behind, the population in the more fertile and better communicated plains grew in importance relative to the castle, although the right bank settlement and the whole did not preserve the Christian name of Burgo de San Justo (or that of Complutum for that matter), but took the name of Alcalá.
Its central position allowed it to be a frequent residence of the Kings of Castile, when travelling south. The town's mudéjar population worked in agriculture, woodwork, pottery, and craftwork. From the late 14th century, they were banned from living among Christians, so from then on they resided in a ghetto. Likewise, the members of the local Jewish minority were primarily employed as craftspeople, merchants, lenders, tax collectors, and in liberal professions. During the 15th century, the latter was one of the largest Jewish communities in Castile, accounting for about 200 families.
Cardinal Cisneros officially opened the University of Alcalá on 14 March 1500, leading to a new stage of urban development that transformed the preexisting urban fabric, and so Alcalá became a true college town with the creation of regular streets, and plenty of colleges. Cisneros also granted the town a new fuero in 1509. The polyglot Bible known as the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, the first of the many similar Bibles produced during the revival of Biblical studies that took place in the 16th century, was printed at Alcalá under the care of Cisneros, who also encouraged Hebrew studies at the University of Alcalá, and brought moriscos from Granada for the university's building works.
By the mid 16th century the service-based economy (dedicated to catering to clerics and students) already gave signs of decline. The last years of the century were particularly dire for Alcalá, and a 1599 plague epidemics decimated the population. With bad harvests and food scarcity, the 17th century started by following a similar demographic trend, to which the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1610 also added on. Despite being largely ruined, the town acquired the status of city in 1687 after long negotiations.
In decadence since the mid-18th century, Alcalá de Henares experienced a relative demographic and economic upturn in the second half of the 19th century, based on its newly acquired condition of military outpost, to which an embryonic industrial nucleus was also added.
The population steadily increased from 1868 to 1939. The population was still agrarian to a large extent, with high levels of illiteracy and poverty. Seeking social change, Republican and later Socialist movements grew in force in the city. The leading figure in the latter movement was , who became the first municipal councillor from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in the province of Madrid in 1903. Emerging in reaction to Socialist advances, Social catholicism also took hold in the city from 1905, founding a number of organizations such as Centro Católico de Acción Social Popular and the Mutual Obrera Complutense.
Following the 1936 coup d'etat that sparked the Spanish Civil War, putschist elements seized key posts around the city. However, following the botched coup in Madrid, Rebel forces in Alcalá eventually surrendered to Republican Colonel Ildefonso Puigdendolas and his troops on 21 July. Alcalá reportedly became a Soviet power base during the conflict—a "republic within the republic" where the Republican national government held a tenuous grip.
The city suffered severe damage during the Spanish Civil War.
Thousands of prisoners were held in different camps in the city after the end of the war. From March 1939 to February 1948, at least 264 individuals were executed in Alcalá by the Francoist authorities.
Geography Location
Alcalá de Henares is located in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula, in the southern half of the Inner Plateau. It lies on the valley of the Henares, a left-bank tributary of the Jarama, which is in turn a right-bank tributary of the Tagus. The right (north) bank of the river (on which the current urban nucleus was built) displays a very flat relief with a series of quaternary fluvial terraces, while the left (southern) bank features a very steep slope of clays from the miocene, rapidly rising up to the moors of La Alcarria.
Standing at an average altitude of 654 m, and occupying some 88 km2; the city was for a long time contained in between the Henares to the South and the Madrid-Barcelona railway to the North. However, the increasing population brought on the sprawl of the urbanised area to the area located in between the railway and the A-2 motorway and beyond.
Climate The climate is semi-arid, with cold, dry winters and hot, dry summers. The average year-round temperature is . The average year-round rainfall is about , mainly in spring and autumn. Temperatures vary from some degrees below in December and January to some over in July and August. Dry season coincides with maximum heat in summer.
University
The major landmark and one of the great prides of the city, its university, uses sites throughout the city, but has two main campuses. The first is on the north side of Alcalá. This campus includes most science departments and student housing (as well as its own, separate Renfe station). The second, central campus, houses most of the humanities and social-science departments, including a law school.
The architectural influence of the university can be found in other present-day academic institutions. The University of San Diego is largely based on the Spanish university; its campus and address take the name "Alcalá Park". In addition, some buildings at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas were modeled after the architecture of Universidad de Alcalá de Henares.
In 1293 in Alcalá de Henares King Sancho IV of Castile founded the Universidad Complutense, one of the oldest universities in the world, as a Studium Generale. With the patronage of Cardinal Cisneros, it was recognized in a 1499 papal bull, and quickly gained international fame as a main centre of learning of the Renaissance thanks to the production of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible in 1517, which is the basis for most of the current translations. By royal decree, the university moved to Madrid in 1836 (initially as the Universidad de Madrid, later as the Universidad Central, which in the 1970s would finally be renamed Universidad Complutense de Madrid). A new university was founded in the old buildings as the Universidad de Alcalá in 1977. Parts of the new university occupy the buildings of the old Universidad Complutense in the city centre, including the modern Colegio de San Ildefonso, the Colegio de Málaga and other Colegios, and the structures have served as a model for other universities across the Spanish territories in the Americas and other dependencies.
The university chapel dedicated to Saint Ildefonso has a monument to the university's founder, Cardinal Cisneros, by Fancelli, an Italian sculptor.
Although the present university is named "Universidad de Alcalá", the ancient institution founded by Cisneros is the one now called "Universidad Complutense", translocated in the capital city of Madrid ("Complutensis" is the Latin word for "native of Alcalá"). The modern university is related to the original institution in name only, although it occupies the former buildings of the Complutense.
Cathedral