Santiago de Calatrava

Nature

Santiago de Calatrava is located 44 km west of the provincial capital, bordering the province of Córdoba. 

With an average altitude of 386 m above sea level and covering an area of 47 km², it is a fundamentally agricultural municipality whose economy is based on olive growing. 

Its landscape is characterised by a succession of low, rolling hills covered in olive groves. The vegetation found today is not the original one. The native holm oak woodland and scrubland have gradually been cleared and replaced by olive groves or cereal crops. 

Almost all farming is rainfed. 

Despite this being a landscape shaped by human activity rather than its original state, the olive groves sustain their own communities. As the olive grove is the predominant habitat in Santiago de Calatrava, it largely determines the local wildlife. 

Despite being an artificial environment, the olive groves sustain their own communities, and as the predominant habitat in the area, they shape the local fauna. 

The olive tree plays an important ecological role: numerous birds, mammals and reptiles find shelter in its old trunks, and its fruit is also a highly energy-rich food source. Few species are found continuously in pure olive groves, as they are mostly used as feeding or transit areas by certain species. Here you can spot species such as the European serin and the greenfinch; and in winter, the blackcap, the robin and the song thrush. 

The best way to experience the flora and fauna of Santiago de Calatrava firsthand is to visit one of its natural sites: 

El Paraje del Caño: a beautiful wooded spot located next to a natural spring that irrigates fields and orchards. This is also the site of the Hermitage of the Virgen de la Cabeza.

Parties and Events

In addition to the Christmas, Carnival, Holy Week and Corpus Christi festivities, the people of Santiago de Calatrava look forward each year to the following celebrations: 

• San Sebastián, 20 January. The town's patron saint, whose feast day includes a solemn procession, venerating one of his relics, which is shared with the neighbouring town of Higuera de Calatrava. 
• San Isidro, second Saturday of May. Since the 1940s, the townspeople have held a pilgrimage in honour of San Isidro, patron saint of farmers. The pilgrimage takes place at the site known as El Caño, a natural spring that once supplied the town's water, where a hermitage was later built in the saint's honour. The organisation of this pilgrimage, along with the accompanying reception featuring wine, soft drinks and pork cold cuts offered to those present, is the responsibility of the Brotherhood of Farmers and Livestock Breeders. 
• Ferias y Fiestas, 25 July. On the feast day of Santiago (St James), the town holds its Fair and Festival named after him, a figure that local tradition has made the protagonist of a legend according to which the Apostle Santiago lent his white horse to a young man falsely accused of setting fire to the wheat harvest. Riding this swift horse, the young man managed to reach the trial in time to prove his innocence.

Gastronomy

The cuisine of Santiago de Calatrava shares dishes with the rest of the towns of La Campiña, whether from Jaén or neighbouring Córdoba. As a result, it is common to see Jaén-style gazpacho and Córdoba-style salmorejo coexisting in perfect gastronomic harmony. Nevertheless, Santiago de Calatrava's cuisine has dishes that assert its own distinct identity, including: 

• Relleno or mondongo, so called because it is made using the pig's stomach, which has been cured in salt and stuffed with meatballs made from minced meat, ham, breadcrumbs, hard-boiled egg and parsley, along with other spices. Once tied, it is simmered in the broth of the cocido stew. This is a typical dish eaten at the end of Carnival. 
• Gachas dulces (sweet porridge), a dish of Moorish influence, made for the feast of All Saints. In addition to being served with milk or pot-boiled honey, it is topped with pieces of fried walnut. 

On All Saints' Day, boiled sweet potatoes are also typical, served with a syrup containing quince, plums, raisins and dried apricots. 

• Salt cod stews, eaten during Holy Week, accompanied by a popular dessert, manta de bizcocho (sponge cake "blanket"). 
• Rabbit with fried tomato sauce. Fried tomato sauce has long been an important ingredient in local cuisine, and can also be served with morcilla (blood sausage) or pork crackling. 

In terms of pastries: "gallina en leche" ("chicken in milk", despite the name a milk-based cake), a homemade cake with milk, flour, sugar, eggs, cinnamon and bread; "fried biscuits", alongside "oil-based roscos", or fried sweets such as "pestiños", "flores" and buñuelos.

History

The area has seen intense occupation since the Bronze Age, with small settlements located in easily defensible spots: Cerro del Cortijo de Toledo, La Dehesilla, Cerro Lucero and Cortijo de Pedro Rubio Alto. 

From the 6th century BC onward, during the Iberian period, small unfortified agricultural settlements were established, such as Manoteras, Cortijo de Pedro Rubio Bajo and Cortijo de Pilallos, which relied on two small fortified sites for their defence: Cerro de la Estrella and Cerro Boyero. 

During the Roman period, thanks to its strategic position between the two major centres of Porcuna and Martos (Obulco and Tucci), a proliferation of small peasant farmhouses can be traced, including two at Cortijo de la Cruz Gorda, as well as those at Cerro Argamasón and Cortijo de Valdeutiel. 

During the Islamic period, the settlement would have been a small hamlet (alquería) forming part of the administrative district of Tuss, or Martos. 

Following its conquest by Ferdinand III, the same king granted it to the lordship of the Military Order of Calatrava in 1228. 

Over the following centuries, until the conquest of Granada, life in Santiago de Calatrava was made difficult by its position on the frontier with the Nasrid Kingdom. It is said that in 1471, the town's inhabitants were caught while asleep, resulting in a great massacre. 

With the dissolution of the Order of Calatrava, its possessions passed to the Crown of Castile. 

It was in 1551 that the town's mayor petitioned King Philip II for the town's independence. 

In the 20th century, the Civil War marked a turning point for the town. In 1939, Francoist troops turned it into a prisoner internment camp. In the 1960s, as happened in many other towns, low prices for agricultural produce, the harshness of farm labour and years of drought forced much of the population to emigrate to industrial centres or major cities, leading to a decline in population.