HISTORY
Albacete (Al-Basit: The Plain) was born in Moslem epoch around a castle that guarded its strategic cross of communications. It was reconquered in 1241 by Alarcón's council, to which Fernando III granted as a village in these dates, and fell down very soon under the municipal jurisdiction of the neighbour Chinchilla;it was,apparently, in the first half of the century XIV when, thanks to the fair installed here, and to its good conditions of space and water, it started out its independent way from D. Juan Manuel's hand, Lord of Villena . It started recovering slowly to its numerous difficulties (about 1324 it was devastated by an arabs raid, to the point that it was necessary to move the fair to Chinchilla while Albacete returned to be repopulated again). Don Juan Manuel provided with privileges to Albacete, he channeled hitherto the waters of the river Balazote and the lagoon of Acequión , and separated it, apparently, from its former metropolis. But the crisis lived by this territory from the middle of the XIV century, with the pest and the wars,had to depopulate, maybe, the villa and made it to return to its primitive condition of village.
In these conditions,the city was protected by the Tower of the Villanueva , and closed by a wall of barbican with pit in the XV century. The principal public buildings were risen up (old town hall, tower of the Villanueva ...) . Besides, the Main Square, with the roll or municipal pillory. From the century XV, the three hills were connected by streets that received the names of buildings and places "El Tinte", "La cruz", "La feria" and later of hermitages and convents (Rosario, San Agustín) placed outside (the village, which grew during the XV at the same time as Chinchilla's influence was falling down, was walled in the XVI century ). In these dates, the villa reinforced its commercial function and reception with several inns (El Rosario, La Estrella, La Feria), It was developing some modest crafts and a strong increase of the agricultural farming activities. Even it extended its municipal term at the expenses of Chinchilla , from which Felipe II bought a great part (today, after increasing it again, it possesses the biggest one of the province, with 1.233 Km.).
In the XVIII, the reactivation of the fair (Felipe V granted the privilege in 1710, and, after many complaints and lawsuits with the friars and with Chinchilla , the municipality managed to move to the current building emplacement in 1783) and the change of economic conjuncture led a modest overshot of Albacete, still obstructed, nevertheless, by the stagnation of the waters, which will continue stopping the development until, well entered the XIX century, the ancient project of drainage that would be the María Cristina's channel was done. In the XIX, several plunders of the Napoleonic troops first, later the Carlists wars (Albacete was always very l iberal ) and the epidemics of cholera would delay its recovery; though it is necessary to indicate as well that, with the provincial capital in 1833, the establishment of the High Court in 1834, the arrival of the railway in1855 and the grant of the title of city by Isabel II. In 1862, it began to have certain urban way. It was already clear at the end of century with the early inauguration of electrical system of illumination in 1888 and the installation of the first "industrial" factories.
With all this, and with a great vegetative growth not interrupted from the middle of the century, Albacete was creating the bases of its definitive regional hegemony. There would help very much, undoubtedly, the fair, which was enjoying well-deserved reputation in Spain and was concentrating cattles of very distant places (in 1831 they were accounted in "La Cuerda", where it was used to be sold, 12.000 cows, 17.762 jackasses, 5.363 horses and 21.619 mules. This fact places Albacete at the top of the fairs of Spain, without any complex with those of Sevilla, Jerez or Medina del Campo).
The XX century, and especially those years of the First World War, which enriched the middle class with the sales of supplies to the contenders and the crazy twenties that continued, it came to confirm the progressive trends of Albacete and provide it of drinkable waters, sewer, parks and gardens, Saving Banks by the " Bank of Albacete ", and diverse elements of infrastructure that allowed the development of some industrial activities, part of them already traditional: metallurgy and cutlery, nourishment and materials of construction. This way, the century saw the increasing of the population, from 21.500 inhabitants in 1900, to the almost 42.000 in 1930, and 64.200 inhabitants in 1944, in one of the most spectacular increases that knew the cities of Spain.
Albacete possesses approximately 140.000 inhabitants, and it is the biggest city of the region, and a center of services of first order, which includes Superior Court of Justice of Castilla- La Mancha , several faculties and university schools, and a hospital that gives service to the whole province and to a good part of Cuenca. (for more information click here).
MONUMENTS.
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| Photo: Pasaje Lodares
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| Photo: Plaza del Altozano
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| Photo:Credit Spanish Bank |
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