Carrión de los Céspedes - Seville

Carrión de los Céspedes is located to the west of the river bed of Guadiamar, west of Sevilla, and it borders on Huelva. In 1.996 it had 2.257 inhabitants.

To the west of Aljarafe, where this area joined with Huelva and with the Campo de Tejada, it is located Carrión. Whoever that cross the Motorway of the V Centenary could observe, watching the valley of Alcarayón, which is an Arab name, Carrión ‘s white country house.

In its name the village has the trace of the last feudal lords, the marquis of Céspedes, place that D. Gonzalo de Céspedes, noble number twenty four in Sevilla, bought the manor to Felipe II in 1576. The origin of the town was an Arab farmhouse, like many other towns in Aljarafe, it was a much inhabited place since ancient times because of its farming wealth and its nearness to Sevilla, which provided with farm produce, and it depended on Sevilla in a direct way. Although we know very little about that Islamic property that created the town of Carrión, the historic testimonies are unanimous when they evoke a Paradise Aljarafe, full of vegetable gardens, vineyards and its olive groves about the huge importance of water and of irrigated land in the Islamic Alj we have in Carrión the trace of an old water mill, that used the current of Alcarayón.

When Fernando III conquered Sevilla, Carrión was given in 1253 by his son the Wise King to the Military Order of Calatrava, and that is why it had its first Castilian name of Carrión de Calatrava. However, in this period of war and lack of safety the situation of the farmhouse should not be prosperous, and we do not find anything at all about it until a century later, when it was converted into Carrión de los Ajos, that was settled by peasants from Utrera and del Campo and Huévar. And so, being Carrión de los Ajos a small noble village from Aljarafe is going to belong to the Crown, when in 1501 the Catholic Monarchs annex the manors of the Military Orders, until its actual “name” was acquired when, Isabel II great-grandson sold the small manor to D. Gonzalo de Céspedes.

The Ancient Régime went on in a town that, in spite of all the restrictions and of its small boundary, was growing until reach and exceeds in number of inhabitants the rest of the neighboring villages. We have to wait to the democratizing work of the Revolutionary Six Years Period (1868-1874) in order that lords in worldly and in spiritual theme of Carrión lose their anachronistic jurisdiction over this village of Andalucía, that, in this way, it received the abolition of the last remains of feudalism almost a century after French Revolution.

The actual town of Carrión, inherited from the ancient and depopulated Moslem farmhouse, observed with anguish how the increase of its population, only exceeded by Pilas, was a great problem. The dramatic contemporary history in the Andalusian country, with the matter of the land in the foreground, caused Carrión something very pitiful, because of the limited expanse of its township.

A hard story about headman and peasants rebellions, with some democratic rest between decades of authoritarian regime, led to our civil war. After the war, the city of Carrión started something contrary to the strength and it exceeded three thousand people. The phenomenon of the emigration caused the demographic decline of the village, like so many carrioneras families settled in Cataluña and in many places of Spain and foreign countries.

Monuments

Church de San Martín 
Hermitage de Ntra. Sra. de Consolación 
Square of the Indiano 
Town Hall 
Sevillista Club (Ancient Oiler Mill)  
Station Halt of the Railway 
Cruces

Gastronomy

Typical Courses: Crouton with sardines or cod and olive oil, Stew of the witches (thick noodles stewed with fish), Dried Beans and “cochas”, Chickpeas Stew, Chickpeas “pelaos”, Crumbs, Stew of meat and Sopeao (andalusian cold coup with fried breadcrumbs you can add melon, grapes, cucumber, tomato, onion, all with olive oil). 
 
Sweets: Roses, Poleá (Porridges), Fried milk, Petacas, honey- coated pancakes and Rolls (“birutas”), filling with custard or cream

How to get there

Leave SEVILLA (SEVILLA) by the local road. Stretch intersection for 1,8 Km towards All directions / Mérida/ Córdoba/ Airport. Continue through A-66/SE-30/E-803 for 2,0 Km. Stretch intersection for 1,1 Km. Roundabout  in 667 m and take the fourth Exit. Continue through N-630 for 102 m. Continue through A-66/SE-30/E-803 for 1,9 Km take the exit 17B towards Camas/ Huelva. Stretch intersection for 360 m. Continue through A-49/E-1 for 27,8 Km take the exit 28 towards Pilas/ Carrión. Stretch intersection for 383 m. Continue through SE-636 for 1,0 Km. Roundabout in 249 m and take the second. Continue through the Street of Juan Carlos I (SE-636) for 98 m. Carrión de los Céspedes

Distances

To Sevilla 33 km 
To Castilleja del Campo 2 km 
To Villalba del Alcor 16 km  
To Almonte 28 km 
To Villamanrique de la Condesa 16 km 
To Aznalcázar 14 km 
To Pilas 9 km  
To Huelva 65 km