Liétor

Liétor is a municipality in Albacete, Castile-La Mancha, Spain, located southest of the Iberian peninsula, in the valley of the "Mundo" river. It has a population of 1,279 inhabitants (according to INE data for 2016). It comprises the districts of Cañada de Tobarra, Casablanca, El Ginete, Híjar, Mullidar, Talave and La Alcadima.Among its temples is the church of Santiago Apostol.HistoryAlready in the pre-Roman times, small settlements of population and limited economic importance are found in the valley of the Mundo river. However, the urban nucleus on which the population later settled during the Middle Ages did not exist as such.Liétor emerged during the Islamic period of al-Andalus. The exact date of its foundation is not known, but it is estimated that it occurred around the tenth century. The archeological findings of "Los Infiernos" site prove the importance of Liétor as a border settlement during the Christian Reconquest.These items reflect a period of Muslim occupation in which the population was part of the border with the Christian kingdoms. The Arab knight whose objects were found at in Los Infiernos, was probably spending long seasons warring and defending the territories of al-Andalus or trying to annex new ones.After the Reconquest, at the beginning of the 13th century, the monarch Fernando III donated the town to the Order of Santiago, an administrative unit that would last until the mid-nineteenth century.In the last third of 15th century, a number of knights ("caballeros de cuantía") moved into the village. It was their occupation to wage war and control the borders with neighboring Muslim kingdoms, and in exchange they were exempt from a large part of the taxes which they would have had to otherwise pay to the coffers of the "encomienda" (administrative unit).