Travel To Spain 13: Almeria

Statue Of San Cristobal

                                                                                   Harbour Of Almeria

                                                             Panaromica de Almeria

Almería is a city in southeastern Spain, on the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.

The city was founded by Calipha Abd ar-Rahman III of Cordova in 955 AD. It was to be a principal harbour in his extensive domain to strengthen his Mediterranean defences.

Its Moorish castle, Alcazaba, is the second largest among the Muslim fortresses of Andalusia, after the Alhambra.

In this period, the port city of Almería reached its historical peak. After the fragmentation of the Caliphate of Cordova, Almeria continued under powerful local Muslim Taifa emirs like Jairan, the first independent Emir of Almería, Cartagena, and Almotacin, the poet emir. Both Cartagena and Almotacin were fearless warriors, but also patrons of the arts. A silk industry, based upon plantings of mulberry trees in the hot, dry landscape of the province, supported Almería in the 11th century and made its strategic harbour an even more valuable asset. Contested by the emirs of Granada and Valencia, Almería experienced many sieges, including one especially fierce siege when Christians, called to the Second Crusade by Pope Eugene III, were also encouraged to attack the Muslim 'infidels' on a more familiar coast.

On that occasion Alfonso VII, at the head of mixed forces of Catalans, Genoese, Pisans and Franks, led a crusade against the rich city, and Almería was occupied in October 1147. Within a decade it had passed to the control of the puritanical Almoravid emirs,and not until the late 15th century did it fall permanently into Christian hands. The city surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, on December 26, 1489.