Orihuela Modern History
Costa Blanca Details
Orihuela continued to
strengthen its capital. In the year 1564 Orihuela obtained by its citizens
Diocese of Orihuela and its desired independent of the Diocese of Cartagena
thanks to King Philip II of Spain and Pope Pius IV, who built the seminary in
1762 despite cultural issues, with the creation in 1610 of the University of
Orihuela, which was run by the Dominicans and operated until 1807.
Age
But the problems did
not end there. In 1799 the province lost Orihuela, and Alicante moved to the
governorship of the French king Joseph Bonaparte in the Organization of territorial
prefectures in Spain, went to the Department of the Rio Segura in the capital
of Murcia, and later, in 1822, the province of Murcia.
In March 1829 an
earthquake in Torrevieja caused havoc in the population, mostly damaging the
buildings and the few remaining remnants of the castle. In 1833 Orihuela finally
went to the
The First Carlist War
(1833–1839) was widely reported in Orihuela, especially in 1837, when the
Carlist Forcadell entered the city by becoming the face of a strong government.
The sale was a blow to
the city and especially for the church hierarchy because they lost so many
possessions, such as the current municipalities of Bigastro (belonging to the
Cabildo Cathedral) to the current municipality Redovan (belonging to the Order
of Preachers); many buildings were gradually bought by the Cathedral Oriolana
(the convent of the Trinitarians, the Dominican convent of the Augustinian convent,
the convent of Mercedarian, etc.).
In 1518 the trades
unions were joined by the notary Pedro Palomares, who contributed to the defeat
of the viceroy of
In 1521 the viceroy of
There he was joined by
the army of Charles I, who was commanded by the Marquis of Velez. They united
with other nobles and knights and clashed in the Battle of Bonanza, in which
the unions were defeated and hanged, the principal chiefs were dismembered, and
the city suffered a major looting that lasted 30 days.
|
|
|
|
|
|
After the war King
Philip V, as a form of insult to the city of
Since that time the
prosperity of Orihuela plummeted. The loss of its castle, independence in 1737
from the provinces of
In the late 18th century,
by decree of King Carlos III, the city was separated from the
During the short
chapter that was the first Spanish Republic in 1873, there was the episode of
taking the city by the cantonal Antonete Galvez, who commanded an unknown
number of revolutionaries to defeat the military governor Ruiz Pinero, whose
orders were only 40 carabineers and 11 civil guards in the downtown streets of
the city during the Battle of Orihuela on August 30. By winning the battle,
they set up the cantonal on Canton de Orihuela, dismissing the council.
In 1884 the railroad
came to town. This was so important for the wine industry. The President of the
government at that time was Mr. Canovas de Castillo. The celebration took place
in the cloisters of the former
Unable to achieve a
true industrialization during the 19th and early 20th centuries, a development
of irrigation began in the Muslim era and transformed the economic structure of
the city and its region.
During the last
century, Orihuela began to emerge again. The visit of King Alfonso XIII, Miguel
Hernandez, and the arrival of democracy were the main causes of this
renaissance.
In the decade of 1570,
King Philip II granted the segregation of people of Callosa de Orihuela, which
changed its name to Callosa de Segura. Rafal was separated in 1636. However,
its relative weight compared with other areas of the province had been
gradually decreasing since the mid-17th century, largely due to pests in 1648
and 1678 and the collapse of commercial agriculture. General Bailiwick settled in
the city of
At the end of the 17th
century, King Charles II granted the segregation of one of the ports of
Orihuela, Guardamar del Segura, a natural entry of goods for the governor of
Orihuela, which involved a major loss.
However, in the early 18th
century, there was a powerful colonizer of the gardens, which was supported by
Cardinal Belluga and resulted in a remarkable economic and demographic
expansion.
In 1707, during the
War of Spanish Succession of the Crown of Aragon, the governor of Orihuela and
the Marquis de Rafal were part of the Austrian candidates, which made Ultra
Saxonam the capital of the province Orihuela. In the midst of war, a beam fell
on the castle and exploded the powder magazine and the castle, killing all the
soldiers of the garrison who were there.
In the past two
decades, several important personalities have visited the town. The Reina Sofia
Orihuela came to inaugurate the recently renovated Teatro Circo in 1995; the
current president of the Spanish government, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero,
visited the museum of the poet Miguel Hernandez Orcelitano on May 17, 2007;
and, finally, the 2006 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, George F. Smoot,
came to town, opening the Museum of Teaching and Interactive Sciences de la
Vega Baja del Segura MUDIC on the campus of the University Miguel Hernandez of
the homeless and, soon after, awarded honorary doctorates on November 16 and 28
2008, respectively.
The revaluation of its
coastal zone and tourism development has revived the urban coast and enabled it
to create new jobs and grow in population and has led the current Orihuela to
once again become a major city.
