HISTORY

After the recovery experienced in the eighteenth century, will be in the mid to late nineteenth century, when again Almería again reach prosperity of yesteryear after reaching an important social and economic dynamism that arises under mining and trade grape enriched the war of independence burguesía.La not pass along Almería, although its threat seemed distant from our province, the French came to occupy commanded by Goudinot, who entered the city on March 15, 1810. offered resistance fighters famous Mena, Villalobos and Arostegui. In 1812, the French withdraw from Almeria defeated by Arapiles.

In 1814 Fernando VII returns to power and with it the absolutism and the repeal of the courts of Cadiz in 1812. In this context one of the best known historical episodes of the capital was given, the killing of “the coloraos”. It took place in 1824, when a group of soldiers from Gibraltar, who are nicknamed “the coloraos” by the tone of their coats, landed in Almeria with the intention to proclaim freedom and restore the constitution of 1812. Failing in his attempt, 22 of them were shot by the absolutists in the Rambla de Belen up to C / Granada. Years later, he got up in his honor a monument in the Plaza Vieja which is lovingly called the “pingurucho” and was also the subject of controversy destroyed in 1943 during the military dictatorship, on the occasion of the first visit of General Franco Almeria, did not restituyo until 1987 at the behest of most progressive groups in the city, who also revived the annual tribute to the “coloraos” held every August 24.