Pastrana

• Official Name — Pastrana • Settlement Type — Municipality • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Name — Spain • Subdivision Type1 — Autonomous community • Subdivision Name1 — Castilla–La Mancha • Subdivision Type2 — Province • Subdivision Name2 — Guadalajara • Area Land Km2 — 95.70 • Elevation M — 755 • Population Density Km2 — auto • Timezone — CET • Utc Offset — +1 • Timezone Dst — CEST • Utc Offset Dst — +2 • Website — Official website of Pastrana (in Spanish)

Belonging to the Alcarria natural region, the town is located at the confluence of two small water streams close to the Arlés River, a small Tagus tributary.

There is no mention to Pastrana in early medieval records. The hamlet was presumably founded and settled by the Order of Calatrava, who ruled in the Alcarria region from their stronghold in Zorita after the late 12th century. Pastrana was granted the privilege of villazgo ('township') in 1369, thereby asserting autonomy from Zorita. Parallel to the decline of Zorita, the council of Pastrana consolidated during the 15th century, thriving as a market place. The town was one of the main centers of the mystic alumbrados in the Kingdom of Toledo in the early 16th century. A substantial number of Moriscos was deported from the Kingdom of Granada to Pastrana upon the aftermath of the Alpujarras revolt, with the town thereby becoming a hotspot of Morisco population in the Crown of Castile in the late-16th and early-17th centuries. They contributed to the thriving local silk industry. Upon the expulsion of the Moriscos in the early 17th century, their place in the local economy was occupied by the Portuguese, so the beginning of the Castilian crisis of the 17th century was postponed in the town to the last years of the century. 18th- and 19th-century Pastrana underwent a period of stagnancy and decline, enduring a process of ramping ruralization.