Sheep walk through the valleys of the mountains of Cuenca close to the village of Las Majadas, Spain. Date: 27-06-2016. Photographer: Xabier Mikel Laburu. The transhumance walk will take Enrique Belinchon, his cousin Alejandro Belinchon, his son Aitor Belinchon and their friend Juan Ahufinger, to drive their flocks of sheep along 400Km to the Cuenca Mountains in Teruel for the summer pastures.
King Alphonso the Wise created The Royal Society of livestock owners of the Mesta in 1273. The Mesta became one of the strongest lobbies in Medieval Europe and regulated the paths and administrated the taxes paid for the passing of the animals through different regions. This responded to the the fact that Merina wool, one of the finest wools that exist, was very appreciated and expensive at the time, being also the only product that brought regular foreign income to the Castillean Kingdom at the time. Spain was crossed by different tracks and paths created for the livestock migrations. This is how Miguel de Cervantes describes the transhumance in Don Quixote: "Don Quixote turned to look and found that it was true, and rejoicing exceedingly, he concluded that they were two armies about to engage and encounter in the midst of that broad plain (...) Now the cloud of dust he had seen was raised by two great droves of sheep coming along the same road in opposite directions, which, because of the dust, did not become visible until they drew near, but Don Quixote asserted so positively that they were armies that Sancho was led to believe it and say, "Well, and what are we to do, señor?”" In the XVII century wool was the first Spanish product to be commercialized in the Amsterdam Trade Market, and it was even used to mitigate the economic decline of the Spanish Empire. But the Spanish wool monopoly lasted little more. Just a century later, the first Borbonic regent, Philip V, violated all the protectionist measures that the Mesta so throughly enforced by gifting his progenitor with several Medina sheep for breeding purposes. In the XIX century the Mesta was nothing more than the shadow of what it once was. Having lost most of its economic influence, it was abolished in 1836. Despite the disappearance of the Mesta, the paths are still preserved as public land destined to the movement of livestock despite there are just a few who still live in a transhumance manner.
Size: 5523px × 3682px
Location: Cuenca Mountains
Photo credit: © Xabier Mikel Laburu / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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