The tales about the birth of Loja, like those about many other places in our Andalusia, may be an interesting contribution for those who like legendary stories, the imaginary circumstances and conditions under which, at the dawn of ages, one can intuitively perceive the first lights of the origins of civilizations and peoples.
Loja was Alfeia in the feverish imagination of the
monk Fray Juan Seco, who wrote a story about how the place was founded in 2,163 B.C. by
Tubal, a legendary grandson of the biblical Noah. Tricolia, Civis, Illipula Magna or
Illipula Laus, among many other names, underline the interest shown by different people,
not only local historians, in discovering the origins of this town along the centuries.
The first historical evidence of human settlements discovered in the town dates back to the XIth century BC; within the final period of the prehistoric cultures of the Bronze Age in the south-eastern area of Andalusia. Later, the commercial contacts with the Phoenician colonies established along the Mediterranean coast of Granada and Malaga set in a period of development that reached its peak in the VIIth century BC.
Along the first centuries of the Christian era, Roman culture seems to have influenced Loja less than it was formerly thought. Only after the IVth century AD was the architectural imprint of the Roman Empire left in our town.
After a curious lapse of historical darkness, we are quite certain now that Loja only became a remarkable urban settlement under the Islamic power. Medina Lausa, as it was called for the following seven centuries of its existence, was to become a military stronghold. It played a key role in the defense of the Vega of Granada, the plain, fertile area along the river valley, from Loja to Granada, which was the natural access to the capital of the Islamic kingdom whose rulers lived in the Alhambra. Before the town surrendered to the christian armies in 1486, it already had well defined urban features and important buildings. Besides, it had given the world illustrious figures like the polygrapher
Ibn al Jatib, one of the most relevant personages in the royal court; Alí al-Attar, military commander-in-chief of the kingdom, and Moraima, the latter's daughter and King Boabdil's wife.
Once again, a legendary reference attributed the
phrase 'flor entre espinas' (a blossom amongst thorns) to Isabella, the Catholic Queen.
The blossom referred to Loja, just conquered by the Christians, the thorns to the Islamic
warriors, who were to resist defending Boabdil's kingdom until 1492. After the fateful
assault in 1486, Loja is incorporated to the Kingdom of Spain and to the culture of the
Renaissance.
In the coming centuries, there is no other fact especially relevant for the political history of Spain related to Loja, except for a short period (1512-1515) in which
Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (El Gran Capitán), was appointed governor of Loja by the old King Ferdinand, the Catholic. This appointment
was a humiliating political exile for
the great Spanish soldier.
However, in the XIXth century the historical course of Loja has two particular relevant milestones: the peasants revolt of 1861 and the figure of
General Narváez. As a precedent of the revolutionary movements that were to come later in this decade, during the peasants revolt of 1861, led by Rafael Pérez del Álamo, the town was occupied by the revolting forces for five days. It was an ominous sign of the desperate situation of peasants and share-croppers oppressed by the oligarchic power of the local gentry.
When General Narváez, a son of the town, was appointed as Prime Minister by Queen Isabella II, Loja played again a role of a certain importance on the stage of national politics. This period, though, was also marked by the excessive personalism of Narváez, the Duke of Valencia.
The XXth century brought a relative decrease in the importance of Loja at provincial level, characterised by a lesser relative growth when compared to other towns in the province of Granada.