page_title: Colmenar de Oreja
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Colmenar de Oreja / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Tinajas (Colmenar de Oreja, Madrid, Spain). Belmonte-Useros excursion.
context_page_description: Colmenar de Oreja is a town and municipality of the Las Vegas comarca, in the Community of Madrid, Spain. It was subject to a seven-month siege in 1139.
context_section_description: First known human settlements in Colmenar de Oreja are traced back to the Second Iron Age and located in the caves on the Tagus river basin and within the archeological site of Los Castrejones, both sites occupied by the Carpetani. The region of La Vega is cited by historians Polybius and Livy in their description of the Tagus Battle in 220 BC, when 100000 Carpetani, Olcades and Vaccaei were defeated by Carthaginian general Hannibal.
  After the Roman conquest, Julius Caesar distributed the land among the veterans of his legions, creating rural Roman villas, being the most relevant the villa of Aurelia, which later became a renowned Roman, Hispano-Roman and Visigoth city, and the origin of the actual Colmenar de Oreja. At the time of the creation of the city of Aurelia, Colmenar already existed as a settlement linked to apiculture (colmenar in Spanish means apiary) and stonemasonry from the limestone quarries that still exist in the area. 
  After the period of Roman and Visigothic domination, in the X Century the Arabs built a fort between the City of Aurelia and the left bank of Tagus river, later known as the Castle of Aurelia or the Castle of Oreja. The Castle of Aurelia was, and its remains still are, of special significance, since, after several conquests and re conquests of Aurelia, the city and its castle were finally conquered in 1139 AD by King Alfonso VII himself, a fact that resulted in the granting of the Fuero del Castillo de Oreja on November 3, 1139. This served as a model for other Fueros, such as Toledo or Madrid.
  This important document can be found in the National Historical Archive (Spain). In the year 1171, Alfonso VIII granted the Order of Santiago jurisdiction over a large part of the area established in the Fuero de Aurelia, "with the Castle of Oreja and villages", and, among them, the old Colmenar, being Grand Master Pedro Fernández de Fuentecalada. The population grouping policy of the Order of Santiago made Colmenar prosper enormously, to the detriment of the villages of Castellanos, San Miguel and San Pedro, which ended up disappearing.
  After the Treaty of the Bulls of Guisando, Enrique IV, set his Court in Colmenar de Oreja. Both Enrique IV and Isabel dictated numerous resolutions that appear signed and dated in Colmenar de Oreja, in whose Santa María la Mayor Church, the Count of Tendilla nailed the famous manifesto in favour of Juana la Beltraneja. Supporters and detractors of Princess Isabel sealed their peace in the transcendental Vistas de Colmenar de Oreja. In 1540, Carlos I of Spain granted Don Diego de Cárdenas y Enríquez the title of Primer Señor of Colmenar de Oreja y Oreja, in exchange for the Dehesas of Requena and La Puebla, among others. In 1625, the Señorío was transformed into Condado (County), and the first Count of Colmenar de Oreja and Señor de Oreja, Bernardino Ayala Cárdenas y Velasco, was the 8th Count of Fuensalida. Between 1500 and 1700, the successive kings of the House of Austria authorised or undertook the most important works carried out in Colmenar de Oreja: extension of the church of Santa María la Mayor (1517), repair of the wall (1517) and irrigation of the Vega (1572), foundation of the Franciscan Monastery of San Bernardino de Siena. (1570) and foundation of the Monastery of the Incarnation of the Augustinian Recollect Nuns (1685).
  In 1922, Alfonso XIII of Spain granted the Title of City to Colmenar de Oreja as a reward for the many merits it had acquired throughout its history, coinciding with the prosperity of its industry and the strength of its agriculture. The town was declared Bien de Interés Cultural on  December 26, 2013.
caption: Tinajas (big jars) in Colmenar de Oreja
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