San Roque, Spain

Coordinates: 36°12′35″N 5°23′4″W / 36.20972°N 5.38444°W / 36.20972; -5.38444
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
San Roque
Municipality
View of San Roque at dusk showing The Rock in the background
View of San Roque at dusk showing The Rock in the background
Postal code
11360, 11310, 11311, 11312, 11313, 11314, 11368, 11369
Dialing code(+34) 956 78 XX XX
Official language(s)Spanish
Websitewww.sanroque.es
Map

San Roque is a

autonomous community of Andalusia. It is also part of the comarca of Campo de Gibraltar. Located in the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula, San Roque is a short way inland of the north side of the Bay of Gibraltar, to the north of the Gibraltar
peninsula. The municipality has a total surface of 145 km2 with a population of approximately 25,500 people, as of 2005.

The foundation of San Roque as a city owes to the creation of a sort of Gibraltar-in-exile by refugees fleeing from the Rock in the wake of its seizure by Anglo-Dutch forces in 1704.[2]

In addition of the main nucleus of San Roque, the municipality also includes settlements such as

Guadiaro
.

Placename

San Roque is

Christian saint
who was revered in a shrine dating back to 1508 that predates the foundation of the town.

Geography

San Roque lies in the comarca of Campo de Gibraltar, the south-eastern division of Cadiz province. It is bordered to the northwest by the municipalities of Jimena de la Frontera, Castellar de la Frontera, and Los Barrios, and to the south by La Línea de la Concepción, beyond which is Gibraltar itself.

History

Precedents

The area around San Roque has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The oldest known settlement within the municipality is the ruined town of

Phoenicians. It became a Phoenician tradepost and evolved into a Carthaginian town by 228 BCE. Its major trade was in local wine and garum or salazón, a fish-based sauce.[3]

Carteia was captured by Rome in 206 BCE. A few years later, in 171 BCE, Iberian-born children of Roman soldiers appeared before the Roman Senate to request a town to live in, and were given Carteia, named Colonia Libertinorum Carteia.

Roman forum, Carteia

After the fall of Rome, the Vandals briefly established themselves in the area until 428 before they embarked on the conquest of North Africa, via an invasion fleet across the Strait of Gibraltar. The Visigoths replaced them around the 6th century. The Byzantine Empire made incursions into Andalusia between 554 and 626, occupying Carteia for a number of years, before finally being ejected by the Visigoths.

In 711, Carteia and the surrounding area became the beachhead for the

Merinid army in the 14th century. Over the next few centuries, the population was gradually Hispanicised and Christianised.[citation needed
]

In 1649 a quarter of the Gibraltar population perished from epidemic disease. A number of residents retreated to the area of San Roque, and survived the outbreak, believed to be

typhoid.[4]

Foundation

The modern settlement of San Roque was established by the former Spanish inhabitants of Gibraltar, after the majority fled following the takeover by Anglo-Dutch forces and their Spanish allies during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704.[5] The establishment became a new town in 1706, addressed by King Philip V of Spain as "My city of Gibraltar resident in its Campo" and "My well beloved", because it remained loyal to his cause during the War of Succession. Gibraltar's City Council, banner and records were moved there. San Roque official motto is "Very Noble and Very Loyal city of San Roque, where Gibraltar lives on" (Spanish: Muy Noble y Muy Leal ciudad de San Roque, donde reside la de Gibraltar).

In 1873, during the

Spanish First Republic, the town declared its independence as the Canton
of San Roque for a few months.

Main sights

Historical population
YearPop.±%
199922,719—    
200022,990+1.2%
200123,570+2.5%
200223,981+1.7%
200325,163+4.9%
200424,757−1.6%
200525,548+3.2%
Source: INE (Spain)

The New Saint Roch's Chapel (

Napoleonic troops and the historic statue of the saint was destroyed. The image was replaced in 1833 by a new one donated by an army captain from San Roque called Juan Rojas, who was stationed in Seville. At the time this city was suffering from cholera
epidemics, so Captain Rojas vowed to make the effigy himself if he and his family recovered from the disease. This happened indeed and the new image of Saint Roch was donated to the church by Rojas.

The

Santa María La Coronada Church, is consecrated to Saint Mary the Crowned and it was declared a listed building in 1974. The main building dates from the 18th century and features Spanish-Tuscan architecture and Baroque artwork. Work began in 1735 on the construction of a church over the foundations of the 1508 Chapel of Saint Roch.[6]

The Governor's Palace (Spanish: Palacio de los Gobernadores), which houses the municipal art gallery "Luis Ortega Bru", is also located in the same square.

The oldest bar in the town is the Bar Torres, adjacent to the central square.

Mathew Arnold's brother is buried in San Roque.

Economy and industry

The main economic activities are tourism and manufacturing.

The CEPSA Gibraltar-San Roque Refinery

Industrial Estate. It is the largest in the Iberian Peninsula, with a crude oil daily processing capacity of 240,000 barrels per day.[7]

Local San Roque Club is an important source of tourism. Sotogrande is an exclusive beach and golf resort located in the municipality.

The beaches of Campamento and Puente Mayorga, although no longer so popular as in the sixties due to the nearby industrial activity, are close to San Roque town, facing the Bay of Gibraltar.

Fairs

The

Running of the Bulls known locally as Toro del Aguardiente which has occurred yearly since 1649, named as terrified participants are given a shot of the strong alcoholic spirit ‘Aguardiente’ for courage, before running with the bulls to the San Roque bullring, marking the end of the fair.[8]

Notable residents

Sister cities

See also

References

  1. ^ Municipal Register of Spain 2018. National Statistics Institute.
  2. S2CID 226543517
    .
  3. ^ Carteia was founded by the Turdetani, the later name for the diminished Tartessan empire
  4. ISBN 0-948466-14-6
    , p. 84.
  5. ^ Gold, Peter (2005). Gibraltar: British or Spanish?. Routledge. p. 2.
  6. ^ "Saint Mary the Crowned Parish Church Saint Mary the Crowned Parish Church". sanroque.es. Retrieved 1 January 2013.
  7. ^ Refinería Gibraltar-San Roque CEPSA Archived 2008-10-22 at the Portuguese Web Archive
  8. ^ "San Roque" (PDF). Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  9. ^ "San Roque se despide del dibujante Carlos Pacheco". Andalucía Información (in Spanish). 9 November 2022. Archived from the original on 9 November 2022. Retrieved 9 November 2022.
  10. ^ El Perro

External links

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