Alcalá la Real

Alcalá la Real is a city in the province of Jaén, Spain. According to the 2006 census (INE), the city has a population of 22,129. Alcalá la Real is situated from the provincial capital, Jaén, and from Granada, on the slopes of La Mota, a hill in the Sierra Sur. It has an area of 261.36 km2. The town is dominated by a large Moorish fortress around which, some centuries ago, the settlement evolved. Alcalá la Real is connected to the Guadalquivir valley via the Guadajoz tributary. Remains from the Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age show a human presence in the area in prehistoric times. It has been hypothesized that this was one of the last places inhabited by Neanderthal man. Despite the presence of remains from the Iberians, dating to the late Bronze Age, the first traces of urban structures (perhaps identifiable with the ancient Sucaelo) date to the Roman times. Archaeological findings include a marble statue of Hercules, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Spain at Madrid. After the Muslim conquest in 713, the town was renamed Qal'at (قلعة), an Arabic term meaning "fortified city". In the following centuries, Umayyad caliph Al-Hakam II (971–976) had a series of watchtowers built to defend the city from the Viking/Norman incursions; today 12 of the 15 original towers remain. Around the year 1000 the principal tower, the Mota, became a true fortress, one of the mainstays of the Al-Andalus defence against the Christian Reconquista. In the 12th century it was the fief of the Banu Said family, and became known as Qal'at Banu Said, or Alcalá de Benzaide in Christian sources. After the dissolution of the caliphate and its fragmentation in a series of taifa small kingdoms, Qa'lat was a stronghold of the Kingdom of Granada. From here numerous raids were launched against Jaén and other frontier areas of the Kingdom of Castile. The city was finally captured on 15 August 1341 by Alfonso XI of Castile, who granted it the title Real (Royal), which after that was part of its name.