La Carlota

La Carlota – Bajo Guadalquivir Region

La Carlota is a town located in the South-western of Córdoba, in the region of El Bajo Guadalquivir, it borders on Sevilla to the South and West, to the North on Córdoba and Guadalcázar. It is to 175 metres above sea level, its coordinates are: Latitude 370 40′ 25” North Longitude: 40 55′ 50” West. It has an area of 78’8 km., and in it there are ten population areas called Departments and the centre of La Carlota.

La Carlota together with its departments has 10.640 inhabitants, that are devoted to the agricultural and cattle sector, having an important interest in the service sector, emphasizing that La Carlota has the greatest number of hotel posts in all the towns of our province.

La Carlota has the following ten population areas called Departments:

• La Paz
• Los Algarbes
• Monte Alto
• El Arrecife
• El Garabato
• La Chica Carlota
• Las Pinedas
• El Rinconcillo
• La Fuencubierta
• Aldea Quintana

The first historical testimonies that we find in La Carlota date from the human existence, the Inferior Palaeolithic, from 1 million years until 200.000 years ago. There are basic tools, produced in stone and used for varied functions such as cut hunted animals into pieces or manufacture other wood or bone tools. The man in that time was a nomad and lived in caves and huts built with sticks and branches.

After this first stage of the history in Carlota, we do not find remains until the period known like Bronze Age (1.800 – 600 B.C), represented until now by an archaeological site located in Los Algarbes. During this period the man is nomad and has started to domesticate animals and plants, practicing the agriculture and cattle. Besides he has improved the tools, inventing the ceramic and the smelting of bronze.

After the Bronze Age we can find the Iberian Age (VI-I centuries B.C), from what we have more information in our town, with the sites of Fuencubierta, Las Pinedas, El Arrecife and La Carlota.

After the Iberian culture we find the Roman one, that has left more than fifty settlements spread all around our town. The characteristic environment of this time is the villa, a kind of country house from where the farm took place. However, there also were settlements nearby the Vía Augusta (the present road N-IV) devoted to the trade and the services, like the road stop Ad Aras, where the travellers stopped to stock up with, eat and rest.

With the fall of the Roman Empire the Visigoths survive, from whom we find some testimonies in places like Fuente Membrillar and Las Pinedas. This stage is interrupted by the invasion of the Muslims, who stayed in the Iberian Peninsula for eight centuries. Although we cannot find many remains in the country, we have some traces in Fuencubierta, Las Pinedas and Fuente Membrillar.

Towards 1240 the Christians expelled the Muslims from the Campiña of Córdoba. Since then it starts to take shape our present society. Among the 1250 and 1390 we can find around La Carlota a settlement called Almazán, that, although its location is unknown, it has given the name to our main river bank, the Arroyo Guadalmazán. We can find some sites in Las Pinedas at the end of the medieval age and at the beginning of the modern one, during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs.

During the first centuries of the Modern Age (XVI and XVII centuries) it appears remains of inns in our municipal area, like La Venta del Arrecife, where the king of Spain Felipe IV was eating in February, 1624 during his journey from Madrid to Sevilla, and the one of La Parrilla. We also have proof of some houses from that period, like the ones located in Las Pinedas, La Carlota and other places.

In the last third of the XVIII century takes place the Caroline colonization of our municipal area, being this event the immediate origin of the present La Carlota, although it was governed by a special law, the jurisdiction, promulgated in 1767. In origin there were only five of the ten present small villages (Petit Carlota or Chica Carlota, Las Pinedas, Fuencubierta, El Garabato and Aldea de Beneguillas or Quintana). For that purpose foreigners from Central Europe were brought – mainly from Germany – and some people from the outskirts towns. In this age we can observe important monuments in our town, such as the Molino Real, the Market, the Real Posada, The Church or the Palacio de la Subdelegación de la Intendencia de las Nuevas Poblaciones de Andalucía, nowadays seat of the Town Hall from Carlota.

In the XIX century the town is making up like nowadays it is known; in 1835 La Carlota is took away the special regime that gave the Fuero de Población, starting to work administratively like a normal municipality. Besides, gradually all the present small villages that there were not exit in the moment of the founding came up: La Paz, El Rinconcillo, El Arrecife, Los Algarbes and Monte Alto.

The town of La Carlota was difficult to govern because it has ten centres of population apart from the original town, for that reason and due to the limited public transport that were only riding a donkey, if the mayor had to visit one of the small villages he needed the day, a thing that was not profitable. In view of the events, the mayor had plenary session the appointment of a reliable person like representative of each small village and in this way originated the figure of mayor of a small village, being the following the first ones:
La Carlota at the end of the century had 2 potteries, 4 barber’s, 5 carpenter’s workshop, railway station, 5 blacksmith’s, 2 soap factories, 2 inns, 5 shoe shops, 2 mills with 2 presses and 6 mills with 1 press that crushed all the olives from the town and from several bordering towns, all in all La Carlota from the end of the century was an industrial and business town. We know that in this age there was in our town some chocolate, oil, soap, wine industries and distilleries. But without doubt one of the most famous industries in the history of La Carlota was the flour factory, from the end of the century, Marquis de Santa Rosa’s property and located in the Arrecife, being controlled by an English technician called Walter Horner.

The festival in La Carlota, the 14rd of September, brought traders of all the Spanish geography, above all people from Valencia with their black and long dressings that gave traditional flavour to the livestock show, one of the best from the countryside in Córdoba.
In the XX century it is built the present Carretera Nacional IV, designed over the ancient Vía Augusta, the rasif-arab, the modern reef and the Camino Real from Madrid to Sevilla from the XVIII century, with this the town has its current appearance and shape.

La Carlota Monuments

Palace of La Subdelegación de la Intendencia de las Nuevas poblaciones de Andalucía
Real Posada and Fonda
Plaza Mercado de Abastos
Church of La Purísima Concepción
Municipal Cemetery
Local History Museum Juan Bernier

La Carlota Gastronomy

Cold meat (emphasizing the Chorizo carloteño). Potajes. Fideos. Hakes, groupers and swordfish cooked in different ways.

It is custom in Easter Sunday that children hang in their neck some canastillos de lana, inside it there is a hard-boiled egg painted with strong and loud colours.

Sweets: Rosquillas del Santo.

How to get there

You have to exit Córdoba and continue in: Carretera de Cádiz, then take: Avenida de Cádiz towards: E-5, A-4, Sevilla – Malaga. In the roundabout, take the salida 3 and continue in: E-5 / A-4 towards: Sevilla – Málaga. Then take the exit towards: Salida 424 – Aldea Quintana – La Victoria. Turn left towards: Aldea Quintana – La Victoria – E-5 – A-4 – Cordoba. In Aldea Quintana, continue in: N-IVA. Then you get La Carlota.

Distances from La Carlota

Posadas 24 km
Córdoba 31 km
Peñalosa 23 km
Guadalcázar 17 km
Fuente Palmera 19 km
Ochavillo del Río 24 km
Almodóvar del Río 31 km