Puebla de Guzmán

Puebla de Guzmán lies in the Andévalo district of western Andalusia, inland from the Portuguese frontier. Its predecessor was the settlement of Alquería de Juan Pérez. In 1445 Juan de Guzmán, count of Niebla, encouraged its growth by granting residents common pasture and twenty years of tax exemptions, while requiring houses to be built and vines planted. The older name remained in use for some time: an ecclesiastical document of 1526 recorded it alongside Puebla de Guzmán. A nearby frontier settlement, Alquería de la Vaca, had a more exposed position and suffered raids. Portuguese forces held it from 1474 until its return to Castile was stipulated in the Treaty of Alcáçovas in 1479. The history of the two places shows how lordship, settlement and conflict across the frontier shaped this corner of Andévalo.