History
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See also: Complutum
Roman mosaic of the four seasons, the House of Bacchus, Complutum
Inhabited since the Chalcolithic phase of the Bronze Age, the territory was conquered by Romans in the 1st century BC. They built the town of Complutum near a previous Carpetanian settlement, Iplacea. With 10,000 inhabitants, it reached the status of municipium and had its own governing institutions. It played an important role, located on the Roman road connecting Emerita Augusta and Caesaraugusta. In the late 5th century, Complutum declined.
In Late Antiquity, population underwent ruralization and dispersion into scattered settlements beyond the ruined Roman center; those included the so-called Campus Laudabilis (the germ of the current urban centre and where tradition claims the martyrdom of the boys Justus and Pastor took place)— and around the villa of El Val [es]).
After the Islamic conquest of the Iberian peninsula, the territory became part of the eastern districts of the Middle March of Al-Andalus, primarily controlled by Berber lineages of the Banu Salim, who seemed to be, at least outwardly, loyal to Umayyad central authority. The hills on the Henares' left bank were repopulated, with archaeological evidence pointing at least to the 9th century. The settlement grew, from watchtower to Ḥiṣn [es], and then a larger citadel, Qal'at Abd'Al-Salam [es], hence the name of Alcalá. The plains (presumably with sizeable Mozarab population) were however not fully abandoned during the middle ages. As it emerged the pressing need to defend the Tagus line from Christian advances in the 10th century, the fortification and the surrounding urban developments (with up to two neighborhoods beyond the walls) grew in size.
On 3 May 1118, the territory was conquered by the Archbishop of Toledo Bernard de Sedirac at behest of the Kingdom of Castile. Soon after, on 10 February 1129, Alfonso VII gave Alcalá to Raymond de Sauvetât, also Archbishop of Toledo, becoming an archiepiscopal property for centuries to come. Raymond granted the town an old fuero (charter) in 1135. The document acknowledged a doublet of settlements, mentioning the castle and the town. Throughout the middle ages, presumably also including 11th-century Islamic Alcalá, the place also had a Jewish population, protected by the Archishops of Toledo under Christian rule, whose aljama should have had a size of about 750 by 1292. As warfare was left behind, the population in the more fertile and better communicated plains grew in importance relative to the castle, although the right bank settlement and the whole did not preserve the Christian name of Burgo de San Justo (or that of Complutum for that matter), but took the name of Alcalá.
Its central position allowed it to be a frequent residence of the Kings of Castile, when travelling south. The town's mudéjar population worked in agriculture, woodwork, pottery, and craftwork. From the late 14th century, they were banned from living among Christians, so from then on they resided in a ghetto. Likewise, the members of the local Jewish minority were primarily employed as craftspeople, merchants, lenders, tax collectors, and in liberal professions. During the 15th century, the latter was one of the largest Jewish communities in Castile, accounting for about 200 families.
Cardinal Cisneros officially opened the University of Alcalá on 14 March 1500, leading to a new stage of urban development that transformed the preexisting urban fabric, and so Alcalá became a true college town with the creation of regular streets, and plenty of colleges. Cisneros also granted the town a new fuero in 1509. The polyglot Bible known as the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, the first of the many similar Bibles produced during the revival of Biblical studies that took place in the 16th century, was printed at Alcalá under the care of Cisneros, who also encouraged Hebrew studies at the University of Alcalá, and brought moriscos from Granada for the university's building works.
View of the town by Anton van den Wyngaerde (1565)
By the mid 16th century the service-based economy (dedicated to catering to clerics and students) already gave signs of decline. The last years of the century were particularly dire for Alcalá, and a 1599 plague epidemics decimated the population. With bad harvests and food scarcity, the 17th century started by following a similar demographic trend, to which the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1610 also added on. Despite being largely ruined, the town acquired the status of city in 1687 after long negotiations.
Calle Mayor, c. 1910
In decadence since the mid-18th century, Alcalá de Henares experienced a relative demographic and economic upturn in the second half of the 19th century, based on its newly acquired condition of military outpost, to which an embryonic industrial nucleus was also added.
The population steadily increased from 1868 to 1939. The population was still agrarian to a large extent, with high levels of illiteracy and poverty. Seeking social change, Republican and later Socialist movements grew in force in the city. The leading figure in the latter movement was Antonio Fernández Quer [es], who became the first municipal councillor from the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party in the province of Madrid in 1903. Emerging in reaction to Socialist advances, Social catholicism also took hold in the city from 1905, founding a number of organizations such as Centro Católico de Acción Social Popular and the Mutual Obrera Complutense.
Following the 1936 coup d'etat that sparked the Spanish Civil War, putschist elements seized key posts around the city. However, following the botched coup in Madrid, Rebel forces in Alcalá eventually surrendered to Republican Colonel Ildefonso Puigdendolas and his troops on 21 July. Alcalá reportedly became a Soviet power base during the conflict—a "republic within the republic" where the Republican national government held a tenuous grip.
The city suffered severe damage during the Spanish Civil War.
Thousands of prisoners were held in different camps in the city after the end of the war. From March 1939 to February 1948, at least 264 individuals were executed in Alcalá by the Francoist authorities.
