History of Jete
Although there is evidence of human settlements in Jete since the Neolithic period, with burial caves and evidence of abundant lithic and ceramic industries, the origin of the current settlement dates back to an era in which Muslim populations lived in the area. Geographers spoke from the eleventh and twelfth centuries of a settlement known as “Set”, “Xet” and “Yeth” - a name that means “shore” or “bank” - as a farm belonging to the Alfoz of Almuñécar.
Jete had contact with the first civilizations that arrived by sea to the Iberian Peninsula, such as the Phoenicians, and after the Muslim invasion it developed thanks to being a steep enclave and having fertile lands. The town lived through a period of considerable anxiety until the definitive Christian re-conquest. Later it suffered the consequences of the Moorish War, and after that, the continuous incursions of the Berber pirates that forced the establishment of defensive bastions. Jete was repopulated as from 1573 by people from the north peninsular.
To escape the frequent and terrible floods of the Río Verde, the town grew by climbing the slopes of the mountain on both sides of the Torrontera, which divided it in two, as attested by the Cadastre of the Marqués de la Ensenada (1752) and that of Pascual Madoz (1846-1850). This ravine continued to flood the lower part of the town, so it had to be channeled through a wall like a breakwater that is still preserved today.
Jete’s economy has always been based on agriculture. Already in Arab times its grapes, raisins and figs enjoyed well-deserved fame, although after the Christian repopulation, agriculture was somewhat abandoned. Over time it once again recovered the excellence of such products, to which it added an abundant cultivation of sugar cane starting in the eighteenth century and the Trapiche Factory was built (1736), the first important one in Jete.
Since the end of the nineteenth century, sugarcane cultivation had increased due to the ruin of the vineyards after the phylloxera disaster, which led to the construction of other factories in the municipality while at the same time emigration of its inhabitants took place, especially to South America.
After a period in which moments of boom alternated with moments of decline, in the last third of the twentieth century, the town of Jete experienced a new stage of prosperity thanks to the development of subtropical agriculture and the attraction it represents for tourism.
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