|
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
|||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||||||
 |
 |
Right in the center of the old town, a few meters from the Main Square, a villa-palace from the 18th century houses this small hotel. It is located in the historical part of Cuenca, with a view over the Huecar Gorge. The area also includes the main cultural institutions: Menendez Pelayo University, Castilla-La Mancha University, Museum of Abstract Art, Archeological, Diocesan Museums and it is very close to the Cathedral, Castle, Town Hall, Mangana Tower, Hanging Houses, St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Michael churches. A BIT OF HISTORY Who was Leonor de Aquitania in reality? Our hotel owes its name to this woman, although many of the historians who have dealt with the conquest in Cuenca, when they speak about the king who took part in it, Alfonso VII, assure that his wife was Leonor de Aquitania. The mistake did not just stay in the historical fact in itself but amongst other references, our city has, apart from our hotel, a poliphonic choir with the same name. Without any doubt, it was a mistake from the older historians but, since it was repeated so many times, it became a legend. The historical truth takes us to a woman from the Middle Ages, with a controversial life like few, especially if we take into account that she was a woman. Daughter of Guillermo X of Aquitania, she inherited from her father the dukedom as well as the Poitou county. She was queen of France when she married king Louis VII and later, divorced, she married Henry II from England. This way, she became part of two of the most powerful dynasties from the 12th century, the French Capets and the English Platagenet. But at that time, a woman who stood out was haunted by many envies, which created a black legend of immorality about her life. Then, who was the real wife of Alfonso VIII? It was precisely her daughter, who shared the same name, Leonor. To differentiate her, the historical name of Leonor of England was given. Leonor of England or Leonor of Plantagenet was born in September of 1161 in the normand city of Domfront. She was the sixth daughter of the marriage between Leonor of Aquitania and Enrique II. In the year 1170, in Burgos city, the future Alfonso VIII and the daughter of the King of England married early. Many children were born from that marriage, no less than 10, men and women. Leonor gave as wedding dowry the Gascueña county that Alfonso could never annex to the Castilla crown, but it was certain that many Gascón knights came to the peninsula to help their lord in the fight against the moors. They intervened in the conquest of Cuenca and founded places like Gascueña, Gascas (now flooded under the waters of the Alarcon lake), the Gascones (unpopulated in the region of Valparaiso de Arriba) and Gascañuela (unpopulated close to Alcohujate). She was brought up in a court much more cultivated than the castilian, surrounded by artists, she influenced the growing culture that was beginning to develop. The court of Leonor was a very important
way of entry into Spain of the Cister culture, as demonstrated by the
Monastery of Huelgas in Burgos, founded by the Kings, and the new Cathedral
that was being built in Cuenca, the city which, from its conquest to
the moors in the year 1177, was the lookout for the young monarchs.
C./ San Pedro, 60 |
