History - Beas de Segura
Its first human settlements took place in the Lower Paleolithic period, in the area surrounding the Guadalimar River, where small populations lived in the open air, taking refuge in small caves and supplying themselves with the natural resources offered by the land. Excavations carried out in 1913 and other successive ones in later years have found tools corresponding to the Abbevilliense culture, followed by the Acheulean and reaching the Mousterian, interspersed with the industries of the Clactonian, Tayacian, Levalloisian and Micoquiense already in the Middle Paleolithic era. This makes this settlement one of the oldest in Andalusia.
With the Würm Ice Age, all traces of civilisation were lost and did not appear again until the Neolithic period. They took advantage of the fertility of the soil and the orography of the land, situated on the axis of the Beas River and the Guadalimar River, in the plain known as “El Cornicabral”, even occupying the countryside areas. The richness of the land and the abundance of water made it an ideal place to form small nuclei that lasted until the Chalcolithic era.
With the passage of time, these cultures became more consistent and since the foothills of the Sierra Morena were rich in minerals, a trade was created with them that coupled with agriculture, livestock and crafts, established a solid population based on the trade and barter of these products. This population was strengthened by the opening of an Argaric path in the Bronze Age, through which the Argar culture was introduced. With the entry of the Iberians centuries later, the area was framed in the Oretana region, Cástulo as its capital. With the founding of Cartago Nova, these communication routes for the extraction of minerals between Cástulo and Cartago Nova were reinforced, thus coming to be called the Carthaginian road
With the arrival of the Romans, the territory was the scene of various battles with the Carthaginians. Already under Roman hegemony, these were established on primitive settlements, thus consolidating a consistent population, where several Villae were created with important agricultural centres that had their greatest impact in the first century with the implementation of laws and regulations and the construction of numerous architectural works.
Under Roman rule, with the first administrative division carried out in 197 BC, Beas was attached to Hispania Ulterior. Augusto eventually altered the limits and Beas became part of Hispania Citerior, the so-called Tarraconensis, which in turn divided into seven legal convents, one of them Cartago Nova, of which it was a part. Constantino created the Carthaginian province with part of the Tarraconensis.
The Visigoths did not change the form of government of the Hispano-Romans after their entry, and in 577 Leovigildo suppressed an uprising in the Sierra Morena and began an intense unification policy that would mark the end of Romanisation. Around this time, an ephemeral group of the Gothic aristocratic population coexisted that merged with the Hispano-Romans. At the same time, the latter were mostly the owners of the land, with a population made up of colonists and slaves, and a small group of Jews, of which there is evidence due to the forced Christianisation of said population, a law that promulgated at the IX Council of Toledo (655).
The collapse of the Visigoths in 711 caused the Muslims to invade the entire peninsula and it was not until 714 or 715 that Beas was subjugated by wali Abd al-Aziz ibn Musa. After a few years of political uncertainty, the town became part of the Yayyan Chora, a district of the Independent Emirate, based in Córdoba, constituting Beas an Iqlim of the Chora. At the end of the ninth century, a muladí rebellion took place, the focus being the Sierra de Segura. It is very likely that during this time the fortresses of the town were built, promoted by Ibn al-Saliya in order to protect the access to the interior of the Sierra.
Abderraman III achieved with his arrival in power to appease the rebellion a few years later and thus become owner of all the fortresses, until in 929 he proclaimed himself Caliph and created the Caliphate of Córdoba. From those years, Beas began to develop rapidly with the great diversity of products available such as flax, hemp, wheat, olive trees, fruit trees and another series of merchandise that were transformed. At the same time, mills and looms were built, also creating an important centre of commerce.
The fall of the Caliphate led to the establishment of the Taifa Kingdoms and the territory to remain in Almoravid hands under the rule of Ibrahim ibn Hamusk; shortly after, in 1165, the Almohads attacked their possessions, being overthrown in 1212 in the famous battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. The Arab stay in Beas lasted five centuries.
In 1234, King Fernando III, accompanied by Bishop Juan de Osma, re-conquered Úbeda and the following year Santisteban, Iznatoraf, Chiclana and Beas, handing over the latter to the Bishop.The Bishop of Osma continued to accompany the King, until they re-conquered Córdoba in 1236.
Years later, on November 30 1239, Juan de Osma exchanged the town of Beas and Chiclana with its castles and districts for other towns in Soria and Segovia to the Order of Santiago. The Master, Rodrigo Iñiguez, granted the town a municipal charter plus a series of other privileges. With all this, it became the Commandery of Beas, and these privileges were confirmed and expanded by the different masters of the order. Beas was also urged to have a vicarage and thus was exempt from ecclesiastical jurisdiction, depending on the Vicar of the Prior of Uclés. A convent of Observant Franciscans was established at the end of the thirteenth century, which in 1445 was transferred to the Conventuales.
All this contributed to the town being populated and families coming from the north of Castilla, attracted by these benefits to settle. The Catholic Monarchs took over the administration of the Order of Santiago after their entry, leaving those benefits limited. At the same time, new alcabalas and taxes were imposed, thus losing all exemptions, except for the local jurisdiction, which remained in force until Juana de Castilla in 1513 granted the town the right to open a free market that was installed every Thursday.
During the sixteenth century, the town experienced significant economic development based on agriculture and livestock, with a considerable demographic increase influenced by the aristocratic class, which culminated in its maximum splendour at the time.
The seventeenth century was a decadent period for the municipality, which, immersed in the general crisis in Spain, saw its thriving past fade away. The lack of a solid policy, the rise in prices due to bad harvests, the unfair fiscal pressure for wars, corruption, the privileges of the clergy and emigration to the Indies were some of the factors that contributed to this demise. All this was causing local impoverishment, aggravating social differences and increasing the misery of the majority of the residents. The reality of the time became clear at the beginning of the eighteenth century, with the beginning of the Spanish Succession War.
Already in 1748, when Fernando VI was on the throne and at the proposal of his Minister, the Marquis of Ensenada, the Department of the Navy was created, with Segura de la Sierra as its headquarters. During this time, massive felling of trees was carried out, transporting them by river to Seville and Cádiz, for the construction of boats. Parallel to the Department of the Navy, the Forestry Bureau was formed, which allowed the Tobacco Factory of Seville, Cádiz and the roofs of the Cathedral of Jaén and other emblematic constructions to be built with the wood from the felling.
When these departments disappeared, Sorihuela del Guadalimar, Iznatoraf, Villanueva del Arzobispo and Villacarrillo united to claim their rights to the land depleted by logging. Going forward with the appeal, they expropriated part of the territory from some towns, including Beas, whose term reached the Guadalquivir River, forming the Sierra de las Cuatro Villas.
Another strong destruction of the Beas patrimony took place in 1750, when the Council of Military Orders ordered the demolition of the fortress that was in the highest part of the town. Years later, the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 caused serious damage to some houses.
During the Spanish War of Independence and after the Battle of Bailén, a battalion of French troops entered the town on several occasions in November 1809. In the second incursion, 2,000 soldiers and 400 horses entered, destroying and burning the town and the most emblematic buildings, such as the Parish Church, with the loss of the then patron saint of Beas. The Town Hall, the houses of the Commandery and other buildings, as well as all the municipal and ecclesiastical archives, were also burned, leaving the town reduced to ashes. The residents had to flee the town and take refuge in the surrounding mountains as they were persecuted and the women raped. One of the acts of vandalism that caused the greatest impact among the population was the dragging of the parish priest through the streets of the town and the imprisonment of the sergeant.
By Royal Order of August 27 1817, the town was added to the judicial district of Villacarrillo. With the territorial division of Spain in 1833, Beas, together with Chiclana, which belonged to the old province of La Mancha, became part of the new province of Jaén and were annexed to the Sierra de Segura region. Years later, a large part of the ecclesiastical patrimony of Beas was sold with the Confiscation of Mendizábal, along with the chapels of Santa Justa and Santa Rufina, San Sebastián, San Juan, San Agustín and the Iglesia de San Miguel, which was used as the House of the Inquisition.
In 1836, the town suffered attacks by Carlist parties, events that the general commander of the province of Jaén, Antonio Romero, referred to the General Captain of Granada. On April 25 1869, a collapse in the Tobón above Calle de las Almenas caused the death of 34 people and another 16 were injured, a fact that coincided with the San Marcos festivities. The urban policy commission had to declare the area in ruins and evict the affected residents.
At the end of the nineteenth century, two lodges belonging to the Spanish Grand Orient were created, one was Regeneradora No. 113 and the other, Martí No. 14, mainly made up of employees, owners and industrialists who decided to found them without having a true knowledge about freemasonry. In 1899, the Convent of the M.M. Carmelitas was badly damaged when the French raided the municipality.
In 1927, a plan was approved to build a channel and provide irrigation to the Loma de Úbeda, an initiative that was taken by General Saro. Years later, the construction works of the Tranco Reservoir began, which after the events of the Spanish Civil War were paralysed, being ended during the Franco dictatorship and he took the merits. Since the canalisation for irrigation was unfeasible, a power plant was built that retired the old light factory in the part of the Ensanche Saliente and that years later provided the town with electricity supply, among other services.
Another of the large-scale works devised by General Saro was the construction of a railway, the Baeza-Utiel line, passing three kilometres from Beas, where it was practically finished, including a station in the area called “La Nava”, but in 1964 they dismissed the project and it progressed no further. This fact supposed a great loss for the railway communications of Beas with the Spanish Levante. On these dates, many projects and a long-awaited Agrarian Reform were devised, but everything remained mere promises that were not carried out due to the shortage of budgets.
Starting in the 1970s, a mass exodus of families began to take place, which for work reasons migrated mainly to areas of the Spanish Levante, to Catalonia and some of them to France and Germany, producing a significant decline in its population.
In 1975, when Manuel Ardoy Medina was Mayor, the adaptation of the El Cornicabral Industrial Estate began, and Beas de Segura obtained the First Prize for “Beautification of the Towns of Spain” together with the town of Albarracín, leaving both towns twinned, after which the two municipal corporations dedicated a street in both towns.