284 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



various parts of Spain, but I think the bookmaker has rarely if 

 ever visited Albarracin, for the onl}' mention I can find of it in 

 hterature is, that the well known writer A. F. Calvert, in one of 

 his books on Spanish cities, writes of Segovia as being, for 

 picturesque and romantic situation, only equalled by Albarracin. 



Perhaps it is not very much out of place, even in an 

 entomological article, to outline briefly the story of a town so 

 famous entomologically and historically. 



The reason for its foundation was no doubt its possibilities 

 for defence. The River Guadalavier, rising some considerable 

 distance higher in the sierra, has formed one of the finest 

 gorges I have seen in one particular part of its course ; for two 

 miles or so the walls of this canon rise sheer many hundreds of 

 feet, just affording room for the river to flow between them, and 

 for a modern road to be cut alongside. At the lower end of 

 this caiion the river suddenly makes a great bend, the shape 

 of half of the letter S, almost enclosing a rugged ridge which 

 rises some 150 to 200 ft. above the river ; this ridge has in its 

 centre a crag, elevated perhaps 40 ft. above it. On this crag 

 was built the first stronghold, no doubt before historic times. 

 Later the sides of the ridge, and the narrow neck connecting it 

 with the surrounding hills, were fortified with walls, which still 

 in great part remain, and the crag became the citadel. These 

 walls, with their frequent towers, which enclose a spring of 

 excellent water, have the appearance of being erected in Moorish 

 times, say about the year a.d. 1000, and no doubt they consti- 

 tuted in the Middle Ages a very formidable defence. Nothing is 

 known historically of the town before the year a.d. 1020, but it 

 is strongly suspected to have been in pre-Eoman times known as 

 Segobriga, and, as such, prominently associated with the Spaniard 

 Viriathus, who about 150 b.c. held the Romans at bay for 

 many years, inflicting repeated defeats upon them. Be this as it 

 may, in the year a.d. 1020 a Moorish chief, Aben Razen, who 

 was lord of the town and district, threw off the yoke of the 

 Central Government at Cordova, and asserted his independence. 

 This chief and his immediate successors seem to have waged war 

 with the neighbouring Emirs of Sagunto, or Murviedro as it was 

 then called, and Denia, and with the Spanish national hero, 

 El Cid Campeador, who at one time was in possession of the 

 town and kingdom of Valencia. El Cid in the height of his 

 prosperity exacted an annual tribute of ten thousand pieces of 

 gold from the Lord of Albarracin, which fact will aft'ord an idea 

 of the considerable extent and value of the possessions of the 

 latter. Towards the end of the twelfth century the Moorish 

 King of Valencia, Mahommed Aben Lahar, in return for assist- 

 ance rendered to him in war by a Navarrese knight, Pedro 

 Ruiz de Azagra, granted to him the town and territory of 

 Albarracin. The Moorish commander, however, refused to give 



