A historical sketch of San Pedro de Alcantara
The birth of San Pedro Alcantara
The origin and birth of San Pedro Alcantara (without de) is due to general Manuel Gutierrez de la Concha, the first Marquis del Duero, who under the Law of Repopulation established in Spain in 1855, put into effect an ambitious project of land settlement in this area and created the Agricultural Colony of San Pedro Alcantara.The name owes it origin on one hand to the Marquis’ mother Petra de Alcantara Irigoyen and on the other to the family devotion to the saint of Extremadura, San Pedro de Alcantara.
The Founding of the Colony
The founding of the colony took place in 1860. Thousands of hectares of land were cleared and drained, new systems of cultivation were put into effect, dams were constructed together with an efficient network of irrigation which has lasted till present times. Today the irrigation system is still used by a few farmers still remaining on what was once 10,000 hectares of intensive farming land.
One of the Marquis main concerns was that of professional training for the farmers and to this effect he thoughtfully established The Modern Farm School of Agricultural Training, a school that provided a competent staff of foremen and specialists, giving a great start to the colony.
The first recorded Census of San Pedro Alcantara (1860) reports 36 inhabitants, by 1861 this number had increased by 529. Funnily enough there were only 5 people older than 60, 4 men and 1 woman. The majority of these colonists came from Andalusia, Extremadura and Castile.
