In search of Albacete's lost heritage (Part I)

Many times when people talk about Albacete, its History and Heritage, the most common phrase is:”Albacete has nothing, it's a new city...” And, unfortunately, this is a half-truth... For this reason, we are going to reflect and analyze that lost heritage of Albacete in this post, with which we inaugurate a thread with which we will go through some of the heritage elements that we have unfortunately lost in our city.

The origins of Albacete are somewhat elusive, there are reports of the appearance of Iberian materials in the vicinity of the neighborhood of the San Antón Polygon, but we have no purely archaeological data to confirm this.

Officially we can attest to the existence of Albacete through written sources in the 12th century AD, at that time it was known as Albacete (Al-Basit)) and it was a small farmhouse dependent on Sintinyala (Montearagón chinchilla). However, there is evidence of the appearance of Islamic ceramic remains[1] in the vicinity of Isaac Peral Street and the San Antonio Polygon, which would date between the X-XI centuries A.D.

From these “origins”, no architectural evidence has come down to us, although some authors mentioned the existence of “Arab arches” in the houses of Alto de la Villa, something that is not far-fetched considering that this was one of the three hills on which the Islamic population settled, together with the hills of San Juan and Las Cuestas.

[1] R. Sanz and S. Gutiérrez Lloret (“Romans, Visigoths, Muslims”, in Albacete in their History, Albacete, 1991, p. 57).

Written sources confirm the existence of a fortified enclosure in 1375, which would be known as the”Villanueva” and that it was located in front of the San Juan Hill, where the Cathedral of Albacete is currently located.

This will be the main nucleus of Albacete since the 14th century and the city we all know will grow around it.

That is why our first stop on this trip of the”Non-Patrimony” we are going to do it in Villacerrada.

Villacerrada — Alto de la Villa

State of conservation: Ravaged

El Alto de la Villa, popularly known as Villacerrada, was a small elevation located about 150 meters south of the San Juan Hill.

It was completely destroyed in the 80s, with the excuse of eliminating a source of indecency and unhealthiness, since the “Chinatown” had become a rather depressed place where gambling houses and pimping abounded.

Supposedly by eliminating this hill, the city would be opened to the south, equalizing space and allowing greater freedom of movement for the transit of vehicles and people.

Spoiler: It wasn't like that

Let's leave behind this urban aberration and continue with our private Via Crucis Of Non-Patrimony from Albacete.

As we mentioned before, in the 14th century Albacete began to experience significant demographic growth, boosted by the remoteness of the border and the cattle market. Between the 15th and 16th centuries, several religious groups settled in the town, Franciscans (1479), Franciscans (late 15th century) Augustinian (1576) and Justinian (XVI), turning Albacete into a convent city.

Of these convents, only the Convent of La Encarnación, founded as a beatery at the end of the 15th century, was integrated into the order of the Franciscan Cloistered Tertiaries in 1532, they left the temple in 1843 and the building passed through different hands and uses until its current use as the Cultural Center of La Asunción[1].

Below, we detail the fate that the other convents suffered:

[1] https://cultura.castillalamancha.es/patrimonio/catalogo-patrimonio-cultural/iglesia-de-la-asuncion-de-albacete

Convent of San Francisco

State of conservation: Demolished

Founded in 1485, the convent of San Francisco was located on the block currently occupied by the Conservatory of Music. The convent church was demolished in 1879, to reform the cloister that was occupied at the time by the military barracks of the Reus Battalion, thus expanding its dependencies and creating a more suitable space for the Bachiller Sabuco Provincial Institute.

Convent of San Agustín

State of conservation: Demolished

Founded in 1576, after winning a lawsuit against the Franciscans, the convent of San Agustín occupied the current site of the Superior Court of Justice Castilla-La Mancha. It was closed in 1834 and the convent complex was transformed into the Royal Territorial Court of Albacete by order of Queen María Cristina de Borbón-Dos Sicilias, being the judicial institution with competence over Murcia, Albacete, Ciudad Real and Cuenca.

In 1853, the convent church was demolished, which, according to the chronicles, was in a dilapidated state. The rest of the complex was renovated and rehabilitated in 1857 by Francisco Jareño y Alarcón, a prestigious architect from the mid-19th century of Albacete origin.

This neoclassical building had two floors and its entrance was located on San Agustín Street until, in 1944, it was modified to add an additional height and its façade was changed to the Paseo de la Libertad.

Unfortunately, the building underwent a new and definitive transformation, when it was demolished at the end of 1974, and the current building of the Castilla La Mancha High Court of Justice was erected in its place.

Convent of San Lorenzo Justiniano (Justinianas)

State of conservation: Demolished

The Justinian convent, founded at the end of the 16th century, was located in the current Plaza del Altozano, and the church is located in the middle of the square, where the fountain and the anti-aircraft shelter (which took advantage of the crypt) are currently located.

Until the 19th century, the convent kept its status and properties intact, but the process initiated with the confiscations began its rapid and definitive decline. In 1842, the convent closed its doors and its church was installed as the headquarters of the polling stations in Cortes.

Its final destination was already written in the 20th century, when in 1931 it was decided to demolish the convent and its church to expand the Plaza del Altozano, and thus give greater space to the square and the avenues of La República (now Paseo de la Libertad) and Marqués de Molins, the main axes of the city.

St. John's Cathedral

State of conservation: Changed

The parish church of San Juan was built at the end of the 13th century in the Cerro de San Juan, a church originally built in the Mudéjar style, which was expanded and renovated as early as the 16th century, preserving only the Mudejar tower and façade. This mixed profile, the result of the combination between the façade and the Mudéjar tower, with a Gothic headboard and a Renaissance body, remained unchanged until the beginning of the 20th century, when the last Mudejar vestiges were demolished and the current Neo-Gothic façade was projected.

This would not be the only damage suffered by the church and the hill of San Juan. Since, at the end of the 70s, an underground car park was planned under the square, destroying any archaeological vestige that existed, and just as in the case of Alto de la Villa, we lost any possibility of knowing the history of our city in greater detail, since we lack an archaeological record that supports what is described in written sources.

With this we end our first Post, we hope that with it we will understand what we have been losing and in this way we will value the scarce heritage that our city has left, and together we will fight to maintain, protect and disseminate it.

Bibliography

• García-Sauco Beléndez, L.G. (1979). The Cathedral of San Juan Bautista in Albacete. Institute for Albacetenese Studies. Series I. No. 2
• Sanz, R. & Gutierrez Lloret, S. (1991). Romans, Visigoths, Muslims, in Albacete in its History.
• Magán Perales, J.M. (1997). The urban development of the city of Albacete. Institute for Albacetenese Studies. #94
• Petrer Marín, A. (2010). The town of Albacete in the Late Middle Ages. Institute for Albacetenese Studies. #194
• Petrer Marín, A. (2007). From Islamic Albacete, notes and conjectures. Institute for Albacetenese Studies.
• Sanchez Torres, F.J. (1916). Notes for the History of Albacete.
• Mateos Arcángel, A. (1983). From Old Albacete. Institute for Albacete Studies.
• Meya Iñiguez, Mª. M. (2001). Old Albacete: the lost devotions. Institute for Albacete Studies. #131

Until we publish Part II, we invite you to see our previous one. Post of Archaeology: https://ideasmedioambientales.com/por-sus-nombres-los-conocereis-toponimia-y-patrimonio/

Part II of this magnificent is now available Post In: https://ideasmedioambientales.com/en-busca-del-patrimonio-perdido-de-albacete-parte-ii/