|
|
The history of Gaucin began in the prehistoric era, from which cave paintings still exist within the township. A major complex of caves with paintings from 40 different paleo & neolithic cave cultures is near Benaojan which is another village in the Ronda mountains.
The first major culture to settle in Guacin where the Ibearians, called bastulo-penos or Phoenicians by the Roman commentators, Pliny, Strabo and Ptolemy. Ancient Iberian ceramics from this time have been found in the castle's water deposit.
The Phoenicians established gold mines on the nearby Sierra Bermeja and probably controlled the area of Gaucin during their hegemony of the region.
The Romans found that the easiest place to access the Ronda mountain range was from Gaucin, south from the sea to penetrate the interior. They built roads to accommodate traffic and commerce in the region. The road, Camino de Gibraltar, is still used today and in parts the original stones are still intact.
Gaucín was a rest stop for soldiers after the battle between Julius Caesar and the sons of Pompey, which took place in Monda. The Romans built the castle, although nothing remains of this construction.
During the 5th century the Visigoths invaded Gaucin. They called the town Belda and left a necropolis, a large cemetery. Much later, the Visigoth, Guzman el Bueno, died in 1309 fighting the Moors in front of Gaucín castle.
From 714 AD the Moors, led by Tarik, invaded Spain via Gibraltar, and used the exising Roman roads for their conquest. During this time Gaucín was ruled from Damascus, and the name was changed from Belda to Gauzan, which means rich village or hard rock. Gaucin was the Kingdom of Granada's western outpost and as such was the site of many battles. In 1457, King Henry IV of Castile finally liberated Gaucin, although many Moors remained in the area until the 16th Century.
During the 16th Century, the Moorish population in Gaucin, called Mudéjars, rebelled several times against the Spanish Catholic monarchy. The monarchy waged continual war against them which resulted in many Mudéjares crossing back over the Strait of Gibraltar to north Africa, leaving the town to become depopulated and impoverished.
There did remain a number of mudéjar vagrants in the area, who conspired with Moroccan pirates to kidnap Christians for ransom or for the slave trade. In turn, ruined Christian farmers and decommissioned soldiers turned to banditry, hunting mudéjar vagrants to sell into slavery, and also preyed on the local population.
The British took Gibraltar in 1704. At this time, a local priest of Gaucín, fearing that the town would be sacked by the British, hid away the church's treasures, but the British never came. By the end of the century many British Gibraltarians did peaceably come to Gaucín, to spend their summers in the cool mountains.
In 1808, during the Napoleonic War, the French invaded Gaucín. 700 experienced mountain guerrillas tried unsuccessfully to defend Gaucín from the castle, but the French hauled canon up the escarpment and sacked the town, laying waste the Carmelite convent and expropriating its treasures. The French went on to raze 135 private houses, killing citizens and burning municipal archives. The French stripped the Santo Niño of its costly vestments and threw the effigy off the cliff. A Spanish proverb declares, El Francés, mal vecino es, (The French are bad neighbors). The Napoleonic War impoverished Gaucín, and banditry (bandolerismo) became a career for many. Bandits lived in caves and preyed on travellers and townsfolk, killing and robbing with impunity.
During the beginning of the Carlist civil wars, 1833 to 1876, the castle of Gaucin was repaired, fortified and provisioned by the Cristino Crown. However, the Carlists captured the castle, confiscated its treasure and food stocks then imposed burdensome taxes on the population.
By this time British Gibraltarians arrived in greater numbers for Gaucín's cool summer air. The hotel where they stayed is still exists today, also as a very good restaurant, the Hotel Nacional.
In the first year of the Spanish Civil War, (July 17th 1936 to April 1st 1939), nationalists captured Gaucín, in September of 1936, killing more than fifty people.
Impoverished by civil war, many citizens in Gaucin turned again to banditry, and to the smuggling of contraband. Some bandoleros and contrabandistas became very rich, while many others were caught and shot by the Guardia Civil. Memories of these terrible times are still vivid among the elderly of Gaucin.
Today the people of Gaucín enjoy a peaceful and plentiful life. |
|
|