History of Armilla
Although Armilla is known to have existed during the Roman occupation, the first documented sources date back to the Arab period. During the Caliphate of Córdoba, the town was known as Armillat al-Aflum or Armilla del Río. It was during this period that Armilla began to flourish economically. The Arabs perfected the irrigation systems of the plain and built ditches to carry water to the land. Combined with the excellent quality of the soil, this resulted in high-quality produce.
The town played a prominent role within the Kingdom of Granada, thanks to the quality of its agricultural produce and its position as a transit point for silk merchants and industrialists en route to the coast. In the final decades of the 15th century, the silk industry experienced a significant boom in Armilla, where artisans wove delicate items from this raw material. However, the pressure from the Christians to conquer Granada, and the battles fought to achieve this goal, put an end to this thriving industry and left the once-fertile land barren.
The capture of Granada by the Christians in 1492 was a pivotal moment in history. The Catholic Monarchs granted the Nasrid royal family safe passage out of the city. Once they had left their royal residence in Santa Fe, the royal family moved with their entire army to Armilla, where Queen Isabella established all the necessary regulations. Near the town, Boabdil, the last Nasrid monarch, met King Ferdinand and handed him the keys to Granada. He then continued to Armilla to meet Queen Isabella, who returned their son, who had been held hostage, to Boabdil and his wife Zoraya. The San Miguel cistern, the only vestige of that period, was covered and destroyed when a recent apartment building was constructed.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, few inhabitants of Armilla chose to abandon their lands in Christian Granada, as the capitulations allowed them to keep them. However, the situation became very tense when they were forbidden to speak their language or practise their religion. Consequently, many decided to leave for the Alpujarras, where the Moriscos rose up against the established power during the reign of Felipe II. This rebellion had consequences for the Moriscos who remained in Armilla, and ultimately, to be on the safe side, they were expelled by decree. This expulsion depopulated the area, leaving the farmland deserted, with only two families remaining. At the end of the sixteenth century, twenty families who had volunteered to come from northern Spain arrived in Armilla, marking the beginning of the current urban centre.
From the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, Armilla continued to evolve, maintaining a strong agricultural focus. The families who settled in the town and their descendants occupied uninhabited houses and restored the land, which had been left deserted after the expulsion of the Moriscos, to its former productivity. By the mid-eighteenth century, the population of Armilla was confined to a very small area. Only the area around Calle Real, the threshing floors, Prados Square and Aurora Square, and Calle de la Acequia Chica was inhabited; the rest of the municipality was mostly irrigated farmland. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, hemp and flax cultivation became widespread.
By the end of the twentieth century, revitalised by its proximity to Granada, Armilla had become a thriving municipality and a prominent residential area in the capital’s suburbs, thanks to its active economic, cultural and sporting scene. The aim was to maintain this privileged position in the province well into the twenty-first century. Part of the municipality is home to Wing 78 of the Spanish Air Force, which is currently the Air Force helicopter pilot school and base for the ASPA Patrol.