Roses Catalonia |
|
Hover over the image for an enlargement |
|
|
Roses is a municipality in the comarca of the Alt Empordà in Catalonia, Spain at the north end of the Costa Brava. It is situated on the Mediterranean coast at the northern end of the Gulf of Roses. The origins of Roses (Greek: Rhode) are disputed. It is believed that Roses was founded in the 8th century BC by Greek colonists from Rhodes. However, it seems more probable that it was founded in the 5th century
BC by Greeks from Massalia (Marseilles). Remains from the Roman period go back to the 2nd century BC and continue well into Christian times with a paleochristian church and necropolis. A fortified settlement
from the Visigothic period has been excavated on the nearby Puig Rom. The monastery of Santa Maria de Roses, first recorded around 944, around which grew the mediaeval town of Roses, fell under the shared
jurisdiction of the abbots of Santa Maria de Roses and the counts of Empúries. In 1402 the county of Empúries was incorporated in the Crown of Aragon and Roses acquired the right to organize its own municipal government. In the first decades of the 16th century Roses suffered repeatedly from attacks by privateers from North Africa. In 1543, to counter this threat, Charles V ordered the construction of extensive fortifications. In spite of these precautions a squadron of the Turkish admiral Barbarossa attacked and plundered the town some months later. After substantial revisions, the fortifications were completed in 1553, under Charles's son Philip II. The entire mediaeval town was now enclosed by a bastioned pentagonal wall . The defensive system was supplemented by the Castell de la Trinitat, some 2.5 km to the east. During the Catalan Revolt, French troops besieged Roses and captured it. The Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) restored the town to Spain. In 1719, during the War of the Quadruple Alliance, the French again attacked, and but failed. In 1793, during the French revolution, the French revolutionary government declared war on Spain. Roses suffered a long siege that lasted from November 1794 till February 1795. The town was surrendered to France, but peace between France and Spain was restored that same year, and the French withdrew. In 1808 Napoleon forced the king of Spain to abdicate, French armies invaded the country again, and Roses was besieged for the fourth and last time. During this siege, the famed English captain Thomas Cochrane assisted the Spanish by placing his men in the Castell de la Trinitat to help defend the town, staying until the citadel and the town surrendered, before evacuating himself and his men. In 1814, when the French left Spain, they blew up the town's fortifications along with the Castell de la Trinitat. The ancient town, the Ciutadella, was now completely ruined, while to the east the modern town slowly continued to grow. In 1879 Roses suffered a devastating economic crisis through phylloxera, a pest of the grapevines, which destroyed the town's wine growing industry. Part of the population moved to Barcelona or emigrated to the United States. One of the symbols of Catalonia is the rose. El Dia de Sant Jordi, Catalonia's patron saint, is also known as the day of the book and the rose. Roses is within easy distance of the French border and less than an hour by car from Girona airport. The C-260 road links the town with Figueres. Roses is the first city in Spain to get their entire city in 3D for Google Earth. |
|
