History of Fuente Vaqueros
When Granada fell to Christian hands in 1492, King Fernando and Queen Isabel distributed the fertile lands of the Vega among their nobles, but they were careful to reserve the estate known as Soto de Roma for the Crown as a hunting ground and place of recreation.
On this 1,500-hectare estate, traditionally covered with tamarisk groves, poplar groves, avenues, elm groves, and willow groves, the Royal Palace was built at an undetermined date, according to a document by Pedro de Aguilar. There are indications that it did not yet exist during the regency of Felipe II. Within its boundaries stood a tower, the nature of which is uncertain; it may be an old Arab country house or the remains of an ancient fortress that served as a watchtower in the Vega during the Arab period, as Washington Irving describes in his writings.
There are some discrepancies regarding the origin of the name Soto de Roma, although it is most likely that Roma derives from the Arabic word for ‘Christian’. This etymology is supported by the fact that not far from Soto, there is a village called Romilla (or Roma la chica). According to Arab tradition, the unfortunate Florinda, daughter of Conde Julián, lived there. Between Romilla and the Genil River, one can still see a watchtower called Torre de Roma, which has always been considered a boundary marker, indicating the southern limit of Soto.
In 1765, Carlos III gifted Soto to Richard Wall, son of Irish noblemen. Under Wall’s patronage, the construction of the cemetery and the parish church of Fuente Vaqueros (now destroyed), dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Anunciación, were planned. Upon Wall’s death, the estate reverted to the Crown, later passing to Manuel Godoy and, after his fall from grace to the National Heritage. Four years later, the fate of the estate and Fuente Vaqueros changed when, in 1813, the Cortes de Cádiz granted them in perpetuity to Sir Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington, as a reward for his services in the Peninsular War, thus linking them to the nobility and the British Crown.
In 1858, a friend of the Second Duke of Wellington, Horatio Hammick, managed to visit Fuente Vaqueros, despite the floods that had diverted the course of the Genil River, and found it mired in poverty with only 400 inhabitants. Following this date, and as a result of the commercial demand for flax and hemp, which were grown abundantly in the Soto area, there was a significant population increase, with the municipality having 2,000 inhabitants by 1900.
Fuente Vaqueros was under the control of the Duke until 1940, who leased his lands to settlers. He gradually sold them to these same settlers, who populated the area and gave rise to the present-day Fuente Vaqueros.