Albelda de Iregua

Albelda de Iregua is a village in the province and autonomous community of La Rioja, Spain. The municipality covers an area of and as of 2011 had a population of 3339 people.GeographyAlbelda is located south of Logroño in the lower Iregua valley. This provides a fertile land for growing fruit.The village is bounded on the north by Lardero and Alberite, to the east by Clavijo, to the south by Nalda and to the west by Sorzano and Entrena.Within its terrains were the unpopulated communities of Longares, depopulated in the 12th century, Morcuera, deserted in the 14th century and Mucrones.HistoryIn 1063 the Bishop of Nájera approved a Town Charter for the population, under the name Longares.The town had a Jewish community since the 10th century till the Spanish Jewish Inquisition in 1492. During that period of time, about 35 families lived in the town, paying taxes to the local bishop. Several Jews acquire the surname of the town, such as Moses Albelda (died 1545), a bible commentator who lived in Turkey and assumed to have ancestors from the town, who escaped to Turkey during the Inquisition.ToponymIts name may come from the Arabic term with the article Bayda Al, which means 'The White'. On the other hand, the etymology of the word Albelda proposed by the historian Urbano Espinosa points to the toponym Albalda/Albeilda (in Spanish), the village, as recorded in the Christian chronicles and consolidated during the Muslim rule (8th and 9th centuries). Its meaning has to do with the set of three monasteries located in the townships of Nalda and Albelda: San Pantaleon (in Nalda), and the monasteries of Albelda and Las Tapias, in Albelda itself.