HISTORY OF THE CITY
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Badajoz was founded by Ibn Marwan"the Gallego" in 875, on the edge of the Caliphate of Cordoba. Practically independent of the authority of the caliph, it was the capital of one of the most extensive Taifas on the peninsula. It depended on all the lands located south of the Douro, present-day Extremadura and the entire Lusiton territory from Coimbra to the North to Sines in the South. The Muslim-born city remained under the orbit of Islam until 1230, when it was conquered by Alfonso IX of Léon. 

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Though abundant prehistoric remains have appeared and of the epoch visigoda, there are not known urban accessions previous to the century X. Invaded the Peninsula in 711, the arabic they conquer the visgodos in Guadalete, where the King Don Rodrigo betrayed by the children of Witiza, loses the life or disappears without leaving track. After this disaster, small stock exchanges of resistance arise in Merida and other cities, but in a little time the invaders control almost the whole territory, except a few small areas placed in the peninsular north.

In the last third of the IXth century, big internal struggles they were shocking the Caliphate of Cordova. For then the city of Merida, it was governed by the family of the Marwan. It was a question of hispanoromanos of Galician or Asturian origin, Spanishes convert to Islam who after the inavasión turned to the Islam. His turbulent and independent character, they caused frequent clashes with Cordova. Ibn Marwan Yunuf " to the Yiliqui " is protesting to the court of the caliph, where it is humiliated and despised. Little later he flees of the city and shelters in Alange, defying the authority califal. The castle is surrounded, but the commander muiladí resists and manages to flee towards the north accompanied of your supporters. His form of life is the guerrilla warfare, being allied according to convenience, with Moslem or Christian groups. A life " of movie ", similar to other historical figures like the Leader Warrior or Geraldo sen Fear.

Before the threat that Marwan's belligerence supposed, the armies natives of Cordoba chase and besiege it constant, producing to him numerous battles and sieges of which the Spanish convert to Islam manages to survive, answering every assault with the corresponding reprisal. Before this situation authorization of the caliph is granted to him in the year 875, to establish himself in the Hill of the Millstone, raising the primitive city located inside she first fortress. Always he enjoyed a wide margin of independence with regard to Cordova, up to the fall of the Caliphate moment in which the Marwan governed a city increasingly prosperous. Badajoz declares your independence when the Slav Sapur, betraying the confidence of the grandson of the founder, proclamose king of Badajoz

With the extinction of the Caliphate in, in 1022 the Aftasid dynasty was established, which has since reinstated in a wide territory bounded to the north by the Douro basin and to the south by Sierra Morena. To the east from the confines of Toledo stretched to the Atlantic, including the lands of central Portugal with important populations such as Lisbon, Evora and Coimbra. During its existence it remained constantly under continuous pressure from Castile, Portugal and the neighboring Taifas.

The invasion of the Almoróvides, called to the peninsula in the face of harassment of the northern kingdoms, motivated Christian defeats in Sagrajas and Uclés. The process of reconquest suffered a major setback, but at the same time, the taifas lost their independence decretizing the union of Al-Alandalus. The arrival of the Almohads in 1146 meant the renewal and reinforcement of the defenses of Badajoz, rising albarranas towers in the areas where the Guadiana and Rivillas rivers did not protect the population. Of them that of Scarecrow is the most representative element of the time. The Christian victory of the Navas de Tolosa in 1212 takes the border to Despeñaperros, resisting for a time the lands of Badajoz, Sevillla and Córdoba, next to the kingdom of Granada.

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It was in March 1230, when the troops of Alfonso IX of León took the city. It ceased to be a border between the north and the south, as the Reconquest advanced unstoppable towards Seville, Cordoba and the Algarve. Thus Badajoz became a divide between the kingdoms of Castile and Portugal, becoming a "pad" that absorbed the continuing tensions between the two monarchies. Succession struggles between these kingdoms and territorial mutual appetites led to frequent wars and invasions. In the year 1336 there were repeated sites and sieges by the Portuguese kingdom, which for a long period of time coveted the possession of Badajoz.
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When Philip II claims the throne of Portugal, it made Badajoz the base of operations of his army in 1580. In the city the death of Queen Anne of Austria takes place.

In 1589 the Spanish sovereign convened Cortes in the city of Badajoz. The continuous struggles with Portugal, originated by the Restoration War, turn the square and its surroundings into a battlefield, being the region repeatedly ravaged.

The lack of security and an unstable socio-economic structure prevents the settlement of the nobility in and around the capital, since it was not desirable that its properties be exposed to the rigors of those situations.

During the War of the Spanish Succession in 1705 an Anglo-Portuguese army took the city in the name of the suitor Archduke Charles.

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New attack and siege techniques, based on increased destructive artillery power, made ancient medieval fortifications obsolete. Therefore they have to adapt to new geometric lines, that avoid the direct impacts of the artillery, lowering the height of the walls (converted into curtains) and giving a lower height to the towers, which became pentagonal bastions.

Between 1810 and 1812, during the War of Independence (peninsular wars of ndependence), the square was fortified extraordinarily. According to the slab lines, the slat was endowed with bulwarks and revellines, moats and lunettes, as well as forts defending it from the outside. The city endured during those years terrible sieges and important battles were fought in the surrounding area.

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Expelled permanently the French from Badajoz by the Allied troops, the city enjoyed a period of relative peace, but this does not allow for economic progress, as the Portuguese danger disappeared, the city is removed from real power and relegated to a simple outlying city.

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In the middle of the twentieth century, the Civil War of 1936 starred in its last war episode, sadly known for the terrible executions and reprisals, which after the takeover of the city took place in and around the city.

Until the beginning of the 50s of the last century, the capital was bound by the limits of the abaluartada fortification, except for the exit to Madrid and the surroundings of the railway station. Later these areas were converted into the current neighborhoods of San Fernando and San Roque. A poorly planned expansion of the city, destroyed the bastion of San Juan and the wall canvases annexed, giving way to the Avenida de Huelva and a little later to that of Columbus. Thus the continuity of the alluvial fortification was broken and moats, lunettes and other defensive structures disappeared. After this expansion was born the Avenida de Santa Marina, later limited by the so-called "highway", which intended to circumvalate the city to the west. New neighborhoods, among which Valdepasillas stands out far overthis belt, extending the population mostly to the west, around the Olivenza road. At the same time, other areas were developed such as Pardaleras, and the aforementioned San Roque and San Fernando, which were configured as essential parts of the new city.

Badajoz is currently the most prosperous and fastest growing population in its catchment area. The happy reality of the European Union has set aside a new role for it, overcoming old transnational borders and constraints, auguring new and great opportunities. The next route of the high-speed train (A.V.E.) and its international station, the Caya Logistics Platform, the Sines-Badajoz freight line, the "Manuel Rojas" Congress Palace and the new I.F.E.B.A. are among other incentives, the triggers that will allow Badajoz to take off, towards a hopeful future. All this, apart from the booming activity of the commercial sector, which attracts a large number of visitors to the city, eager for its wide and varied offer.

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Despite all previously stated, some researchers insist on the existence of the city as a population nucleus before the Arab invasion. From the end of the fifteenth century until the beginning of the twentieth century the theory that the origin of the city was a Roman population, known as Pax Augusta, was held. According to historians and existing documentation, of a fact noted even though the gentility of Badajoz was always that of "pacenses" such a Roman city never existed. After the conquest of Badajoz for the kingdom of León, the Bishopric of the city was established which the clerics of the time called "diocese pacensis", although the existence of it is not proven before the invasion after the Visigothic defeat of Guadalete. While the city was a tax of the lion kingdom, it is possible that there existed in itself a Christian nucleus, but never with an entity of Bishopric. The nearby cities of Emérita Augusta, Pax Julia and Evora were perhaps (as long as other evidence does not prove it) the cause of this controversy.

Despite the abundance of remains of Roman villas and burials in Badajoz and its term (La Cocosa, Cespedes, Montesinos, La Picuriña, villa and dam of La Crispita, etc.) make certain doubts about an important Roman presence in Badajoz. And after the Romans... visigoths. The abundant remains of this historical period attached to the Arab fortification and elsewhere in the city, has never been sufficiently justified.

The hill of La Muela, whose current level has been the result of the regrowth of the ancient city, on ruins and previous constructions, undoubtedly holds incalculable secrets and an embarrassingly buried and forgotten historical memory, waiting for future excavations that can give some light to these theories yet to be demonstrated.

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