History of Cabrera (The Reconquest)

The Christian Return

AI-Andalus was the name the Moors used to describe the whole of the Iberian peninsula which they occupied. As this territory shrank over the centuries (see map), the name was retained and the last area of Moorish occupation ruled from Granada became Andalucia.

After experiencing several hundred years of relative peace in the southern half of the country, the 13th century brought renewed strife in the form of Christian recapture of land as close as Lorca and Murcia. The Christians did not hesitate to capture Moslems to sell as slaves or to burn their villages when they could. The Moslems did not hesitate to re-pay such visits by the Christians in a similar manner.

However, commercial interaction between the two sides continued, as it was not an "official" war. The building of "Torres" to watch out for approaching raiding parties also continued. The Turre tower was one of the last to be constructed towards the end of the 13th century.

In 1406, Reduán, Governor of the Moorish frontier, with 12,000 foot soldiers and 1,500 horses prepared for an attack on Mula and Caravaca (35 and 70 kms west of Murcia respectively). Similar attacks were mounted in 1434 and 1452 to try and hold back the advancing Christians who increasingly were gaining ground, but to little avail. In 1482 the final assault on the Moors was initiated which ended the era of the Moorish domination of Spain, but the influence of Arab culture, art, language and thinking continues; and some say it is still felt, in Andalusia at least, today.

1488 was very important in the history of the area, since in June that year, Cuevas, Cabrera, Teresa, Bedar, Serena, Sorbas, etc, agreed to accept the Catholic King and Queen, Ferdinand and Isabella as the rightful rulers of this part of Spain. On or about 14 June 1488, an official visit was made to Cabrera by the Castilian army and its commanders. In the Cathedral in Toledo there is carving on one of the choir chairs that depicts the entry of Cabrera in 1488 by the emissaries of the Catholic King and Queen. It shows a set of towers and fortifications, not unlike those we see today around the bowling greens in Cabrera. Clearly, at that time, Cabrera was a place of strategic and, probably, economic importance.

Following the success of the reconquest in this area, there co-existed two distinct cultures and two distinct civilisations, the Moriscos, Mudejar Moors now converted to Christianity who lived in Turre and original Christians who were taking over Mojacar itself. In the Sierra Cabrera, which was only annexed to Turre in 1838, there existed the two settlements, Cabrera and Teresa in which lived Mudejars (Moslems living under Christian rule).

In 1495 there were 1,780 inhabitants registered as living in what is today the district of Turre. Cabrera had circa 155 households with about 775 people in all and Teresa approximately the same numbers. Turre itself was at this time merely a grouping of no more than about 50 farmhouses with about 250 inhabitants.

The Christian tolerance of Moslems was short-lived, so under threat of "repatriation" or worse, most Mudejars (Moslems living under Christian rule) became Moriscos (Moors converted Christianity). Mosques were closed or converted to Christian churches, or new churches were constructed. These procedures affected the communities of Cabrera and Teresa, where it is believed churches were built over the foundations of the mosques.

In 1505, according to documents in Vera, more than half of the inhabitants of Teresa and Cabrera left their homes with their most precious belongings and objects and escaped to Africa. The houses they left were confiscated by the Christian authorities and the Moriscos left in Teresa were forced to move to Cabrera. Teresa was then taken over by original Christians, not converts.

Sierra Cabrera was always a very difficult territory to protect militarily because of its steep terrain and nearness to the sea from where the Berbers could penetrate. During this period of vengeance and bickering on religious and ideological grounds it is not surprising that during one night in 1509 some of the old inhabitants of Teresa returned with a large group of Magreb Corsairs and captured some of the new Christian inhabitants of Teresa to take back to Africa to be sold as slaves. Because of these experiences, no Christians wanted to live in Teresa. It seemed to the Crown that the only solution was to sell the land to the Moriscos in Vera. This led to a partial re-population of Teresa by Moriscos.

Throughout the century following the re-conquest, the villages of Cabrera and Teresa went through successive periods of re-population and de-population, according to the vagaries of politics, religion and the quality of the harvest. In 1593 there were only 59 oxen, 520 goats and 38 donkeys in the area, according to a survey by Jorge de Baeza Haro, Royal Inspector. His visit also led to a report on how Mojacar authorities were neglecting the area around Turre, not keeping promises and mishandling the administration. As a consequence Turre gained its independence from Mojacar in 1596 and became a separate municipality. Things once again started to change in the Sierra Cabrera.

The fourth section brings us up to more modern times.

This page is taken from an article written in 1996 by runo Ravander for the Cabrera Courier.