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Andalusia, Spain

1910 New Catholic Dictionary

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Also written Andalucía. Region of southern Spain comprising the provinces of Almeria, Jaen, Granada, Cordoba, Seville, Malaga, Cadiz, and Helva. It is bounded on the north by the Sierra Morena, on the east by the provinces of Albacete and Murcia and the Mediterranean, on the south by the Mediterranean, Gibraltar, and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by Portugal. It is the most populated and second largest of the seventeen autonomous communities that constitute Spain. Its capital is Seville. The valleys and plains grow oranges, olives, sugarcane, wheat, corn, and other grains; the mountains produce lead, silver, copper, mercury and coal.

Andalusia was probably the biblical Tarshish. Carthiginians settled there in the 5th century BC. It was conquered by the Romans who called it Baetica. Catholics have been active in the region since at least the 3century. Overrun by Vandals in the 5th century by Vandals. The Vandals were defeated by the Visigoths, who lost out to the Arabs in 711 when Andalusia became the center of Saracen and Moorish civilization. Lower Andalusia was taken by Christians in 1212, and the remainder merged with other elements of modern Spain in 1492.

See also the patron saints index.