Pegalajar

Nature

The Sticking Garden along with the Charca, is a Good Cultural Interest, for being an emblematic model of man-nature interaction.

The Serrezuela de Pegalajar is a Mediterranean mountain, with a large mass of pino carrasco repopulation, natural regeneration cells and other shrubs (majelo, juniper, torvisco...). Very abundant are also the aromatic plants (rosemary, alhucema and thyme). Between her fauna There's big. Rape (perishable eagle, common fencing), Night rapes (royal owl, mocha and autillo) and mountain goats in the rocky areas.

Currently takes advantage of this saw to do sport in nature: hiking, mountain bike, climbing, bulder, free flight... It has two views with splendid panoramic views of the mountain environment, and a recreational area known as "Seven Pillas."

Paste has numerous natural sites of high interest both environmental and cultural. Between them We stand out the following:

• The Charca. It's a reservoir that collects the waters of the birth of the Fuente de la Reja since medieval times. In the beginning it was a simple dam with a containment stone wall and gates that regulated the water output through a network of kilometres of waterfalls, which allowed to water the orchard and olive lands located south of the urban core, distributed in banks. A spring that has never been enough to fertilize all the lands that extend at a decreasing level towards the Guadalbullion River. On the other hand, the years of drought the flow of the source is significantly reduced.

• Source of the Reja. It is the natural spill of the underground aquifer and origin of the hydraulic system of the garden pegalajareña. A legend tells, that a lavender discovered the image of the Virgin of Grace in this place, building in his honor a hermitage over the source itself.

• Recreative area "Seven Pills." This area is 2 km away. from Pegalajar, it is given this name due to the source in the vicinity and it is called in the same way. A space with merenderos and viewpoints from which an extraordinary panorama of the countryside, Sierra de Cazorla, Jaén capital and the municipal term of the municipality are obtained. Here is the flight center Seven Pills dedicated to the practice of the Paragliding.

Other areas of interest They deserve to be visited: Valle del Guadalbullón (The Lock) and Bercho Valley.

Parties and Events

• Carnival: The arraigo among the pegalajareños is so important that after the Spanish Civil War, the festival of the masks continued to be celebrated.

• Party in honor of the Virgin of Grace:Commemorated on the first Sunday of May. The participants go to the hermitage of the Virgin, located in the area where the spring of the Fuente de la Reja is located. A Mass is held in his honor and later the procession through the streets of the people.

• San Gregorio Nacianceno: Devotion to this saint goes back to 1670, When the people decide to hold a feast and process the saint every year to rid the field of plagues.

• Virgin of the Snow:: Between 4 and 8 AugustThe patron parties are held in honor of the Virgin of the Snow, with many activities dedicated to all the groups. The Flamenco Festival, to which there are notable figures at national level. Also the bulls and bullfights, which are held in the Plaza de Toros opened in 1919 and have many followers.

• Flamenco Festival: A special mention is required of the Festival of Flamenco Art of Pegalajar, which has been held since 1969 and where each year it is honoured to different prominent figures of Flamenco Art.

Gastronomy

In Pegalajar we find a very varied gastronomy whose fundamental base are the products of the garden. Among the most traditional dishes we have:

• Pipirrana: with tomato, garlic mallet, cooked egg, salt, olive oil.

• Peanuts: soup garlic, chorizo red pepper.

• Cazolilla: made from a traditional conserved called "tomato cake" consisting of dry tomato forming a large cake, which makes a sauce to which a saffrito of onion and cod is added.

• Bercho rice: with potatoes and vegetables from the garden or with "peppers."

Warehouse:

• Papajotes: fried mass of flour, milk, sugar and egg.

• Fried skillet peas and nuts, sugar "tostah," roscs and almond stained...

• Home licenses of endrin, purple or the mistel and wine of the country.

History

The first documented references date back to the Bronze Age. It has been found in the Cueva de los Majuelosdiscovered in the 1970s of the last century, a collective burial with human remains and instruments carved in bone and silex, polished stone, ceramic remains...

Another of the prehistoric references is the hill of Tower of the Head in which the remains of the Copper, Bronze, Iberian, Roman and medieval epoch are mixed.

From the Roman era, deposits have been located scattered by the municipal term, corresponding to small necropolis and villas that indicate the existence of a scattered habitat, with an agro-livestock economy. One of these. necropolis is the Port Altowhere there is also a pottery of the seedling land, pieces of Roman teagula and a stone-carved altar. There are other locations, such as the Canteruelathe Charcons, even in the vicinity of the Torre de la Cabeza has been located Roman ceramics made around.The four militaries found in 1975 in The lock They make known to us the existence of an important Roman road passing through this town. The insecurity of the area in the Middle Ages is reflected in the disappearance of the Roman houses scattered by the term and occupation of the natural strength of the Peña de los Vultreswhere it was built a pebble that is still preserved.

The origin of the villa is from the time of Al-Ándalus. Their existence revolves around the Source of the Tea, aquatic origin of La Charca. With peace and the rise of the caliphate between the X and XI centuries should have to expand the network of accesses and banks that form the Paste orchard.

The Christian conquest took place next to that of Jaén by Fernando IIIwhich also took over the castle of Pegalajar. The primitive Muslim compound was expanded after the conquest, with the construction of a second compound and strengthening of the first one with circular towers more resistant to the gunpowder attack.

From the conquest in 1246, was a village of Jaén, was part of its alfoz and its proximity to the Muslim kingdom of Granada made it a fundamental defense of this city, until the end of the Reconquest in 1492. On this date he loses the strategic value of his castle, but not its economic importancebecause at the feet of the fortress a fertile vega of orchards and olive trees, inherited from the Arabs.

The origin of the population of Pegalajar after the Reconquista was linked to the city of Jaén, on whom it depended administratively. This population was formed by men in the 13th century from several Spanish areas.

In 1559 King Philip II granted Pegalajar a real privilege for which he recognized him. Jaén's exemption and the title of the villa in exchange for a service to the Crown of a significant amount of maravedis. The municipality begins a period of economic and demographic improvement.

After XVII crisis, increased by the tabs and famine in the 18th century, there is a slow population growth leading to the expansion of the agricultural land and the various production, which was maintained until mid-term 20th century where, as in the rest of the province, a important emigration to cities in search of a better life.