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SPAIN - Stonehenge Of Sevilla Saved

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Bianca
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« on: September 30, 2008, 10:14:51 pm »












                                                            Stonehenge of Sevilla saved






September 30, 2008
The Olive Press
| Regional News
John Clark

               A “magnificent decision” to save Spain’s oldest Copper age site from developers


A PREHISTORIC burial site, dubbed the Stonehenge of Sevilla, is to be saved from becoming a supermarket.


The Junta has overruled plans to build a commercial centre, an old people’s home and houses over the 4,500 year old site.

Describing the settlement as a “cathedral from prehistoric times”, the Junta has agreed to instead declare the area an Archaeological Site and build a visitors centre to promote the attraction.

Said to be the largest Copper Age settlement in Spain, the site in Castilleja de Guzman was declared a Site of Specific Cultural Interest (BIC) in 2003.

Covering an area of 1.6 hectares, archaeologists have so far unearthed five dolmens and over 22 burial chambers nearby. Each has yielded human remains, as well as jewellery and earthenware.

Now the Junta’s Culture Department has pledged 250,000 euros to help restore the main dolmen, known as Montelirio, and build an interpretation centre.

“This is a great victory,” said history professor Leonardo Garcia Sanjuan from Sevilla University. “The Montelirio dolmen was built as a prehistoric religious site and is the equivalent of a cathedral. It has architectural, cultural and symbolic importance to the area.

“In their day they had enormous importance. In them they held burial services, commemoration services and they were also visited by pilgrims.”

But, this wasn’t enough to sway developer Grupo Jale, who continued with their plans to build an old people’s home, commercial centre and homes alongside the dolmen.

They began clearing the site last year and, according to local protest groups, left the dolmens in a bad condition due to damage by heavy machinery.

President of local pressure group Association in Defence of the Aljarafe Juan Antonio Morales, described the decision as a “magnificent decision”.

He added: “In a strange sort of way it was good news that the developers moved in and helped to excavate the dolmens as now we know they are there officially to protect them.”
« Last Edit: October 02, 2008, 09:24:41 am by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

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Bianca
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« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2008, 10:24:23 pm »



CASTILLEJA-DE-GUZMAN MAP








                                                         Palace of the Guzman 






The small town of Castilleja de Guzman is located in the western sector of the province of Seville and
at the eastern end of the county's Aljarafe, asomado on the plain of the Guadalquivir.  In 1996 had a population of 692 inhabitants.

The origin of this village is situated in a Roman military camp (Castro), around which were grouped several homes.

During the Muslim domination, Castalla becomes a farmstead whose tenants cultivate the surrounding land, while maintaining the strategic role for its elevated position as a natural vantage point to prevent possible attacks Normans or Castilian.

The fearsome warlord Almanzor comes to stay somewhere on a possible palace located on the same site later occupied by the Marquis of Castilleja.

After his conquest Christian in times of King Ferdinand III Holy (1248), the village belongs to the Military Order of Santiago, which became independent during the fourteenth century.

For several centuries lived under the jurisdiction of the Guzman (which provide it with its present name) until the dissolution of the manors in the nineteenth century.

The village sits in an area topographic ledge at the upper end, between White Mountain and the Santa Brigida, in the place called Montelirios. The topography of the site is very driven, with about 100 meters of difference lying between their ends and the east. The existence of significant outstanding in the easternmost building impossible.

The urban fabric has its roots in the construction of the palace of the Guzman, relying on the road linking it, the Hacienda de la Divina Pastora (the owners) and other farms nearby. Is emerging a small settlement population consisting of two rows of houses on both sides of that road, which gradually turns into Calle Real, the crossing of the road-beds of Albaida Aljarafe.

The initial situation has not changed until a few years ago, when the town was still composed of residential townhouses, supported on both sides of the crossing, having emerged only a street parallel to it and counting as the only free space with the square next to it.

Recently there has been an expansion of the urban area to the south-southwest (between the traditional core and the new variant built to encircle the population) and to the north, in both cases with a predominance of single-family homes townhouses.

Castilleja of the urban structure is very simple and small, taking as the former conditioning crossing on its way through the center of the hull, the new variant and the rugged topography of the land. At present, the palace has been located in the northeast corner of the town, occupying an area similar to the traditional core. The kernel has been developed further to the south and west of Calle Real.

Among its buildings of historical artistic highlights the church of San Benito, the Hacienda de la Divina Pastora and the Palace of the Guzman (XVII-XVIII centuries, today more college university).



http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.sevillaweb.info/ciudades/castilleja_guzman/historia_castilleja_guzman.html&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=8&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DCastilleja%2Bde%2BGuzman%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN
« Last Edit: September 30, 2008, 10:41:33 pm by Bianca » Report Spam   Logged

Your mind understands what you have been taught; your heart what is true.
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