A city of southwest Spain on the Guadiana River near the Portugal border. An ancient fortress city, it rose to prominence under the Moors as the seat (1022–1094) of a vast independent emirate. Population: 145,000.
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Badajoz
(bäthähōth') , city (1990 pop. 126,781), capital of Badajoz prov., SW Spain, in Extremadura, on the Guadiana River. Situated in an agricultural region, food processing is the main industry. Strategically located near the border of Portugal, it has an active trade with that country. Badajoz was a fortress city in Roman times that rose to prominence under the Moors as the seat (1022–94) of a vast independent emirate. Alfonso IX of León liberated it in 1228. Thereafter Badajoz was repeatedly attacked by the Portuguese and was consequently strongly fortified. The city has often been besieged; in the Peninsular War the French failed to take it in a long siege (1808–9) and succeeded in 1811 only to be driven out by Wellington in 1812 after bitter fighting. In the civil war of 1936–39 the capture (1936) of Badajoz by the Insurgents after a bloody battle was followed by hundreds of executions. A 1952 irrigation project, Plan Badajoz, intensified the city's development, raised its standard of living, and provided increased electrical power. Notable landmarks are the massive cathedral (begun in the 13th cent.) and the remains of the Moorish citadel. Manuel de Godoy, the favorite of Charles IV, and the painter Luis de Morales were born in Badajoz.
Wikipedia:
Badajoz
| Badajoz | |||||
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| Location | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Badajoz, Spain location |
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| Coordinates : Time zone : CET (GMT +1) - summer : CEST (GMT +2) |
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| General information | |||||
| Native name | Badajoz (Spanish) | ||||
| Spanish name | Badajoz | ||||
| Founded | 875 | ||||
| Area code | 34 (Spain) + 924 (Badajoz) | ||||
| Website | http://www.aytobadajoz.es/ | ||||
| Administration | |||||
| Country | Spain | ||||
| Autonomous Community | Extremadura | ||||
| Province | Badajoz | ||||
| Comarca | Badajoz | ||||
| Mayor | Miguel Celdrán (PP) | ||||
| Geography | |||||
| Land Area | 1500 km² | ||||
| Altitude | 185 m AMSL | ||||
| Population | |||||
| Population | 143019 (2005) | ||||
| Density | 93 hab./km² (2005) | ||||
Siege of Badajoz
Watercolour en grisaille by Richard Caton Woodville Jr. (1856-1927)
Badajoz (IPA [bað̞a'xoθ], formerly written Badajos in English), the capital of the Spanish province of Badajoz in the autonomous community of Extremadura, is situated close to the Portuguese border, on the left bank of the river Guadiana, and the Madrid-Lisbon railway. The population in 1990 was 126,781; in 2002 it was 136,851.
Badajoz is the see of a bishop. It occupies a slight eminence, crowned by the ruins of a Moorish castle, and overlooking the Guadiana. A strong wall and bastions, with a broad moat and outworks, and forts on the surrounding heights, give the city an appearance of great strength. The river, which flows between the castle-hill and the powerfully armed fort of San Cristobal, is crossed by a magnificent granite bridge, originally built in 1460, repaired in 1597 and rebuilt in 1833. The whole aspect of Badajoz recalls its stormy history; even the cathedral, built in 1238, resembles a fortress, with massive walls.
The association football team in the city is Club Deportivo Badajoz who plays in Tercera División.
History
Owing to its position the city enjoys a considerable transit trade with Portugal; its other industries include the manufacture of linen, woollen and leather goods, and of pottery.
It is not mentioned by any Roman historian, and first rose to importance under Moorish rule. It was founded by the Galician Muslim Ibn Marwan around 875 and after 1022 it became the capital of a small Moorish kingdom (Emirate of Badajoz), and, though temporarily held by the Portuguese in 1168, it retained its independence until 1229; when it was captured by Alfonso IX of Leon.
As a frontier fortress it underwent many sieges. It was beleaguered by the Portuguese in 1660, and in 1705 by the Allies in the War of the Spanish Succession. During the Peninsular War Badajoz was unsuccessfully attacked by the French in 1808 and 1809; but on March 10, 1811, the Spanish commander, José Imaz, was bribed into surrendering to a French force under Marshal Soult. A British army, commanded by Marshal Beresford, endeavoured to retake it, and on May 16 1811 defeated a relieving force at Albuera, but the siege was abandoned in June.
The Storming of Badajoz, 1812
main article Battle of Badajoz (1812)
In 1812, Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington) again attempted to take Badajoz, which had a French garrison of about 5,000 men. Siege operations commenced on March 16, and by early April there were three practicable breaches[1] in the walls. These were assaulted by two British divisions on April 6, 1812.
The attacks were pressed with great gallantry for five hours, but repeatedly beaten back with heavy loss. Meanwhile the castle, and another section of undamaged wall, had been attacked by escalade and successfully taken by the British. At the cost of some 5,000 casualties, Wellington had succeeded in taking Badajoz. He wrote to Lord Liverpool "The capture of Badajoz affords as strong an instance of the gallantry of our troops as has ever been displayed, but I anxiously hope that I shall never again be the instrument of putting them to such a test as that to which they were put last night" (However, the storming of San Sebastian in 1813 was much like Badajoz)
In the Siege of Badajoz, a detachment of the 45th Regiment of Foot (later amalgamated with the 95th to form Sherwood Foresters Regiment) succeeded in getting into the castle first and the red coatee of Lt. James MacPherson of the 45th was hoisted in place of the French flag to indicate the fall of the castle. This feat is commemorated on the 6 April each year when red jackets are flown on Regimental flag staffs and at Nottingham Castle.
With the town taken, military discipline largely disappeared, and the town was subjected to two days of pillage, murder, rape and drunkenness by the British survivors. The only way to restore order was to erect the gallows and flog many soldiers.
(Sir Harry Smith undertook to protect two young ladies from any insult during the sack of Badajoz, one of whom he married. In consequence Ladysmith is named after a former inhabitant of Badajoz, Juana Maria Smith)
Modern History
A military and republican rising took place here in August 1883, but completely failed.
During the Spanish Civil War, Badajoz was taken by the Nationalists in the Battle of Badajoz. A number of Republican prisoners were executed in the bullring.
Famous Residents
Badajoz is the birthplace of the statesman Manuel de Godoy, the Duke of Alcudia (1767–1851), and of the painter Luis de Morales. Five pictures by Morales are preserved in the cathedral. The conqueror Pedro de Alvarado (c.1495–1541) was also born in Badajoz. Cristóbal Oudrid (1825–1877), one of the founding fathers of Spanish musical nationalism, was born here, son of the resident military bandmaster.
Villages
Alburquerque is a small village in the province of Badajoz. Its name became the name (with a typographical error) of the city of Albuquerque of United States by the Spanish conquerors.
References
- ^ A practicable breach was one where two soldiers could get through side by side without needing to use their hands
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
External links
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This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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Copyrights:
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/ Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Badajoz". Read more |
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Mentioned In:
- Luis de Morales
- 1093 (chronology)
- Juan Vásquez (music)
- John Macias
- Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca (Spanish religious leader & statesman)
- battle of Albuera
- Lines of Torres Vedras
- Arthur Wellesley Wellington
- Manuel de Godoy y Álvarez de Faria
- Ferdinand I (Spanish king of Castile and León)
- Guadiana (river, Spain/Portugal)
- Mérida (city, Spain)
- Peter of Alcantara
- el viejo Juan Bautista V?zquez (art)
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