Мекиненса: История и наследие города на реке Сегре

Mequinenza (mekiˈnenθa) or Mequinensa is a town and municipality of the province of Zaragoza, in the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It is located beside the river Segre, close to its confluence with the river Ebro between the Mequinenza Dam and Riba roja reservoir. Its reservoir, known also as Mar de Aragón, built between 1957 and 1964, has a capacity of 1,530,000,000 m3 and is one of the largest in the country. It has a regatta field for rowing and canoeing considered one of the best in Europe for its excellent accessibility and its stable level of water. San Blas and Santa Águeda Festivities take place in February and are considered a Festival of Tourist Interest in Aragon.

The name comes from Miknasa, a Berber tribe that built a defensive settlement at Mequinenza Castle in the 8th century. It was Latinized as Miquinencia and appeared differently in the documentation until the 19th century, alternating the forms Mquinensa, Miquinença, Mequinença, Mequinensa, or Mequinenza. The population is known also as "lo poble". In Spanish the place name is Mequinenza and in Catalan Mequinensa.

Mequinenza is located where the ancient Iberian city of Octogesa once stood, that played an important role in the battle of Ilerda that took place in June 49 BC between the forces of Julius Caesar and the Spanish army of Pompey Magnus. Since 1983 and as part of the research programs of the Museum of Zaragoza and the collaboration with the City Council of Mequinenza three main sites have been excavated by archeologists: Los Castellets, Barranco de la Mina Vallfera and Riols I. Los Castellets: a key site for the knowledge of the transition of the peoples of the Late Bronze Age to the Urnfield culture. The site consists of a colony on a stirrup in the river Ebro, surrounded by two towers, a wall and a ditch, next to two necropoleis. Barranco de la Mina Vallfera: an emergency excavation campaign was carried out on this site, discovering a very important group of necropolis and final Neolithic dating. Riols I. In October 1985, the first emergency excavation campaign was carried out, describing a settlement similar to that of Barranco de la Mina Vallfera. The conservation of this deposit allowed to initiate the studies that indicated that it dated from the final period of the Neolithic. Numerous associated paintings and engravings have been found in Mequinenza, belonging to the Rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin, considered a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998: Barranco de Campells I, Barranco de Campells II, Barranco de La Plana I, Barranco de La Plana II, Camino de la Cova Plana I, Camino de la Cova Plana II, Mas de Patriciel I, Roca de Marta, Sierra de los Rincones I, Valmayor IV, Valmayor V, Val de Caballé, Val de Mamet I, Val de Mamet II and Vallbufandes I.

In Roman times the old Octogesa was settled and would be located near the actual place of the town. During the decay of the Roman Empire, Octogesa was conquered by the Gothic army and later conquered by the Berber tribe of the Miknasa, which would give its name to the town. It was known in Andalusian times as Miknasa al Zaytun, or Miknasa of the Olives, a title also given to Meknes, a Moroccan city of the same etymology. It is believed that Miknasa al Zaytun was settled between the years 714 and 719. During this time it is built a small tower defense. Al Idrisi, chronicler of the time, describes it like this:
It is small, but it has a strong fortress of strong aspect and it is in the borders of al Ándalus. With the Reconquista, the first attempt to besiege Mequinenza in 1133 by Alfonso the Battaler was successful and, although the Almoravids reconquered the town the following year. Mequinenza is definitively won by the Christians on 24 October 1149 by a Catalan Aragonese army. Mequinenza, after half a century of direct royal jurisdiction, was a manor of the house of the Moncada, together with Aitona and Seròs. These are the ones that built the important Castle of Mequinenza. Although the Christian conquest still stood, the three villages were mostly Muslim. Years later conflicts between Fraga and Mequinenza arise because of their border boundaries. On 6 September 1246, to avoid battles and litigation, Pere de Moncada and his wife Sibila proceeded to muddle these terms. Mequinenza did not avoid the plague of 1348, which caused many victims on this occasion and also in epidemic outbreaks since 1380. As a result, from 1381 to 1387, the infant Juan el Cazador remains on several occasions in the castle. In 1410, after the death without descendants of Martin of Aragon and during the successive disputes that led to the Commitment of Caspe, the supporters of Count Jaime de Urgel in the kingdom of Aragon organized their parliament in Mequinenza, in opposition to the parliament of Alcañiz loyal to Fernando de Trastámara.

Between the 15th and 16th centuries, a time of misery and hunger happens with several revolts due to the oppression of some gentlemen. In the year 1697 Fray Miguel de Salas wrote the book "Vida de Santa Agathoclia, virgin and martyr, patron of Mequinenza". During the reign of Carlos II, silkworm farming industries were developed that would continue active until the arrival of the War of succession in 1705. Different wars such as the Catalan Civil War (1462–1472) and different Spanish internal battles in also devastated the town and the castle during the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1810 during the Napoleonic invasion, General Louis Gabriel Suchet as Ramon Berenguer IV did in 1149 conquered Mequinenza, Fraga and Lerida. This facilitates the conquest of the whole of the Bajo Cinca and the Segriá regions, and as a result of this figure "Mequinenza" in the Arc de Triomphe of Paris was one of the great victories of Napoleon. In 1812 Mequinenza became part of the French Department of the Bouches of the Ebro. Mequinenza was recovered for the Spaniards by troops of General Copons in 1814 thanks to an audacious stratagem of the adventurer Juan Van Halen. In 1831 the town and the castle already belonged to the Dukes of Medinaceli. Once again under the rule of the Bourbons, the strategic castle of Mequinenza and its surroundings were transformed and conditioned again to adapt to new forms of warfare with artillery and infantry equipped with rifles. The Duke of Orléans also ordered to expand and strengthen the road parallel to the Ebro river that connected Mequinenza with Tortosa. In the enlightened environment of the mid 18th century in Spain, José Ferrer Beltrán was born in Mequinenza, a priest who stood out for his role as a musician as an organist for the cathedrals of Lérida, Pamplona and Oviedo. He also became a close friend of the Asturian politician Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos. The old undiscovered city of Octogesa also attracted many adventurers as the French diplomat and writer Jean François de Bourgoing that evoked the possible link between the Mequinenza town and the Roman Octogesa of Julius Caesar. At the dawn of the 19th century, the economic situation of Mequinenza had not changed substantially and agriculture continued to be the main economic source. Mudejar irrigation techniques and large treadmills were still used close to the Ebro river. In 1802, Charles IV granted consent for the construction in Mequinenza of a new parish church, designed by the architect José de Yarza in the Neo Renaissance style. The works began in 1802 and lasted until 1808.

In the course of the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1939, Mequinenza and its municipal area were the scenes of bloody combats of the Battle of the Ebro, between June and November 1938. The Auts were the scene of violent fighting during the initial phase of the battle of the Ebro, where the 42nd Republican Division began to cross the Ebro river in this area on the morning of 25 July. The plan of the operation of the Mequinenza Fayón by the Republican Army was to cross the Ebro river and the conquest a bridgehead. The balance of the battle of the Auts was one of the bloodiest in the entire battle of the Ebro. On the republican side, 817 dead and 1,328 prisoners, not counting the wounded and disappeared (about 3,000 casualties), and by the Francoist Army, 135 dead and 1284 wounded. The objective of the republican offensive was to fix the enemy's reserves and cut the road from Mequinenza to Maella. This knot, however, was never conquered. To the initial effort of the 226 Brigade and part of the 227 Brigade of the 42nd Republican Division, the Francoists replied with the progressive arrival of reinforcements. The offensive continued day after day with no significant progress despite heavy fighting. On 1 August, a double aerial and artillery bombardment preceded a first counterattack by Francoist forces. The republicans would attack again two days in a last attempt to conquer the long awaited 'Gilbert Crossing', while on 6 August there was a definitive counterattack by the Francoist army, forcing the republican army to defend itself, avoiding the collapse of the entire division. Finally, the survivors of the 42nd Republican Division had to cross the Ebro again in the opposite direction. As a consequence of the Battle of the Ebro, the bridge over the Ebro in Mequinenza was destroyed. Six decades after the events, on 8 August 1998, the group of republican survivors of the "Quinta del Biberón" inaugurated the monument erected on the hillside of Alto de los Auts, a key position, the highest and most strongly defended by the Republicans. The monument, designed by Javier Torres, is presided over by two plates, in Catalan and Spanish, and two helmets on each side. The plaque says: 'To all those who lost, who were all'. Up to 250 combatants accompanied by their families participated in the homage. After depositing a wreath at the foot of the monument, the veterans recalled the thirst, heat and diseases they suffered during the combats.

The town is most well known amongst northern European fishermen for the large but elusive Wels catfish (Silurus glanis), which are found in the vast Mequinenza reservoir. Along with the traditional cyprinid fishing, the sporty and technical black bass fishing grows here. Catfish, introduced in Mequinenza in the spring of 1974, have also been incorporated into the carp, carp and alburno, the most abundant and most fished species, capturing specimens of more than one hundred kilos and more than two meters of length. Built in 1966 on the Ebro river, it has an area of 7,540 hectares of water surface, being the largest reservoir in Aragon. Its volume reaches 1530 hm³, dedicated to the production of electrical energy. It has an average width of 600 meters and its depth can exceed 60 meters. The dam is 79 meters high. The construction of the Mequinenza reservoir together with that of Ribarroja, led to the destruction of the old town of Mequinenza. The rise of water levels flooded its population and the agricultural lands. The Francoist authorities determined to demolish the entire town, including the church. Many of the Mequinenzanos lost their jobs, especially in the coal mines, as the mines were flooded by water. The inhabitants of Mequinenza did not give up and rebuilt a new, more modern and touristic Mequinenza close to the Segre river. Fishing is probably the greatest tourist attraction for visitors to the "Sea of Aragon" in Mequinenza. From the beginning, it was understood that the Mequinenza reservoir was a powerful source of tourist attraction and the fishing societies rushed to organize their activities. In 1965, 20,000 largemouth bass fry and 175,000 royal carp fry were released. It was the beginning of the great current fish wealth; the reservoir is thought to contain more than 50 million fish. Many fishing guides operate in this area using boats due to the large expanse of water created.

At the confluence of the rivers Segre, Cinca, and Ebro near Mequinenza is the Aiguabarreig, an area with great natural richness and a great variety of ecosystems ranging from Mediterranean steppes to impenetrable riverside forests. We can find hundreds of meters wide water with numerous fluvial islands and riverside forests, large masses of reed, pebble beaches, ponds and galleries. It is a point of convergence of the steppe flora coming from the arid zone of Monegros and of the Mediterranean flora that ascends by the Ebro valley. Thanks to these characteristics coexist species of opposite atmospheres. Birds are the most numerous group and range from ardent colonies to all types of birds of prey and desert environments. Reptiles, amphibians and mammals can also be found, especially bats, deer, roe deer, otters and the increasing presence of wild goats. In the surroundings of Mequinenza, three residential developments and several sports clubs have been established that continuously organize water sports, sailing, canoeing and motor boating competitions, with an increasingly consolidated infrastructure of ports, piers and guard facilities. Mequinenza also has numerous shops related to fishing and numerous tourist accommodation, and various sports clubs such as Club Capri dedicated to rowing and canoeing in the reservoir. In addition, the town has become an international tourist reference, basing part of its economy on this sector since many rowing and canoeing teams train and carry out preparatory stages in its calm waters (Oxford, Cambridge, German National Olympic Team ). Mequinenza has a stable sheet of water in its rivers that makes it one of the best regatta courses in all of Europe.