Page 137 - Microsoft Word - Belicena respaldo

Armorial Achievement of the House of Tharsis

More than a century had lapsed since Bera and Birsha ordained the Golem to execute
two missions: to comply with the extermination sentence of the Cathars and to edify a Templar
Castle in Aracena. The first «mission», as was seen, was carried out with neatness by the
cistercians Golem; about the second, instead, was no advance yet. While Ferdinand III the Saint
reconquests Sevile in 1248, his son Alfonso X the Wise seizes in 1258 the Algarve and Huelva,
and King Sancho II of Portugal, a short time berofore his dead in 1248, he conquered Aracena,
region that passed to integrate the Crown of Castile in 1252. It can be assumed the urgency
with which acted the Templars since the same moment in which Huelva was reconquered. In
1259 they had obtained a certification from Alfonso x that authorized them to «occupy a
property in the mountain range of Aracena and to fortify it conveniently, for the effects to
shelter and defend the garrison of two hundred Knights». However, a few years before the
emission of such certification, the Templars had localized the Cave of Odiel, once charted the
plans and excavated the foundations of the Castle. All the mountain range of Aracena remained
under the Templar control, including the population of Aracena and many minor villages. But
the members of the Chosen People who accompained the Templars in the enterprise, didn't
come to an unknown place: the name of Aracena, in fact, comes from the Hebrew root Arai,
wich means mountains, being Arunda, the mountainous, synonymous of Aracena. This curious

137