Zamora, Spain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zamora is a city in Castile-Leon, Spain, the capital of the province of Zamora. It lies in the northwest, near the frontier with Portugal and crossed by the Duero river.

The name Zamora comes from the Visigoth "Semura" or from the Arab "Azemur" and "Semurah". The foundation of the city, however, was by Rome, with the name of Occelum Durii or Ocellodurum (the Duero Eye), in the days when the local hero Viriathus fought the Roman invasion. At Roman conquest, it was in the hands of the Vaccaei, and was incorporated into the Roman province of Hispania Tarraconensis. It was on the road from Emerita (modern Mérida) to Caesaraugusta (modern Zaragoza). (Ant. Itin. pp. 434, 439).

During the Medieval Age, Zamora was taken by the Arabs and by the Christians successively (from the Arab invasions in the early years of the 8th century to the last years of the 11th), and it was fortified.

Image:Catedral zamora.JPG

The most important historic episode took place when the city had an extraordinary relevance after the death of Ferdinand I of Castile: his son Sancho II of Castile, trying to reunify the kingdom against his siblings, lay siege to Zamora, which was the possession of his sister Urraca. During the siege, he was assassinated, causing Castile to fall to his brother Alfonso. During the 12th century, the city was extraordinarily important for its strategic position in the wars between Christians and Arabs to conquer the Iberian Peninsula. As a result, the city preserves many churches and buildings from that time. In the next centuries, the city lost its political and economic relevance and suffered emigration, especially to South America (who founded many other cities called Zamora).

It has now 65,000 inhabitants and very beautiful medieval buildings, churches and places to visit.