© Mark Wade
| Medinaceli © Mark Wade |
Ancient town 75 km from Soria, in Moorish hands in the Cid's time. It is so much the focus of the Poem of the Cid that many scholars believe the author must have been from there.
The town goes back to the pre-Roman Occilis, which was on the adjacent hill to the west. The Celtic town and its rich salt mines were taken by the Roman troops under Consul Claudius Marcellus in 153 BC, and he established a Roman garrison on the site of the current town. Located on the strategic road from Caesar Augusta (Zaragossa) to Toletum (Toledo), Medinaceli preserves many Roman elements, including the mosaic floors which are uncovered everywhere around the town. However unique in the Iberian peninsula is the Triumphal Arch that still looks out across the Arbijuelo valley below. The dating and rationale for the arch are unknown, but it is a miniature (9 meters high by 13.10 m across) of those found elsewhere in the empire. Salim Ibn Waramai.conquered the town for the Muslims and called it Madina Salim (City of Peace). Abderrahman III repopulated the city, and in the tenth century Galib made it the capital of the Middle March. Al-Mansur built a fortress, with subterranean stables, on the site of the old Celtic town. After his defeat at Calatanazor, he was buried in Medinaceli
Medinaceli was first reconquered by the historic Alvar Fanez in 1104, but it changed hands between Christians and Moors many times before being definitively reconquered by Alfonos the Battler in 1123. The current modest town has become an artist's colony, with its beautiful vistas of the surrounding country, its polyglot assemblage of Roman, Moorish, Medieval, and Renaissance architecture. Latitude: 41.16641. Longitude: -2.42061.
And after this my Cid did battle in Medina Celi, with a Moor called Faras, who was a good knight in arms, and he defeated and slew him and another also.
Five days they travelled, and then they came to Medina Celi; and always the porter of the King was with them, and made all that they wanted be given unto them, even as the King had commanded.
And he called for Muno Gustios, and Pero Bermudez, and the Bishop Don Hieronymo, and bade them take a hundred knights lest there should be need to fight, and go to Molina, to Abencano, who was his friend and vassal, and bid him take another hundred knights, and go with them to Medina Celi as fast as they could go.
There was good look out kept in Medina, and Alvar Fanez sent two knights to know who they were.
Then they entered Medina, and Minaya served them; all were full glad of the service which they had undertaken, and the King's porter paid for all.
They left Medina and past the river Salon, and pricked up Arbuxuelo, and they crost the plain of Torancio.
They went on by Valdespino, and by Parra, and Berrocal, and Val de Endrinas, and they left Medina Celi on the right, and crost the plain of Barahona, and past near Berlanga; and they crost the Douro by a ford below the town, and rode on and came into the Oak-wood of Corpes.
On the morrow they lodged at Medina Celi, and from thence they went to Molina, and Abengalvon came out with a right good will to welcome them, for love of the Cid, and he did them all the honour that he could.