| Official Name: | Albelda de Iregua |
| Settlement Type: | Municipality |
| Pushpin Map: | Spain La Rioja#Spain |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location of Albelda de Iregua in La Rioja##Location of Albelda de Iregua in Spain |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | Autonomous Community |
| Subdivision Type2: | Province |
| Subdivision Name2: | La Rioja |
| Subdivision Type3: | Comarca |
| Subdivision Name3: | Logroño |
| Leader Title: | Mayor |
| Leader Name: | Rosa Ana Zorzano Cámara |
| Leader Party: | PP |
| Area Total Km2: | 23.03 |
| Population Note: | (INE) |
| Postal Code Type: | Postal code |
| Postal Code: | 26120 |
| Coordinates: | 42.3667°N -30°W |
| Website: | www.albelda.org |
Albelda de Iregua is a village and municipality in the province and autonomous community of La Rioja, Spain. The municipality covers an area of and as of 2011 had a population of 3339 people.[1]
Albelda is located south of Logroño in the lower Iregua valley. This provides a fertile land for growing fruit.
The village is bounded on the north by Lardero and Alberite, to the east by Clavijo, to the south by Nalda and to the west by Sorzano and Entrena.
Within its terrains were the unpopulated communities of Longares, depopulated in the 12th century, Morcuera, deserted in the 14th century and Mucrones.
In 1063 the Bishop of Nájera approved a Town Charter for the population, under the name Longares.
The town had a Jewish community since the 10th century till the Spanish Jewish Inquisition in 1492. During that period of time, about 35 families lived in the town, paying taxes to the local bishop.[2] Several Jews acquired the surname of the town, such as Moses Albelda (died 1545), a bible commentator who lived in Turkey and assumed to have ancestors from the town, who escaped to Turkey during the Inquisition.[3]
Its name may come from the Arabic term with the article Bayda Al, which means 'The White'. On the other hand, the etymology of the word "Albelda" proposed by the historian Urbano Espinosa points to the toponym Albalda/Albeilda (in Spanish), meaning "the village", as recorded in the Christian chronicles and consolidated during the Muslim rule (8th and 9th centuries). Its meaning has to do with the set of three monasteries located in the townships of Nalda and Albelda: San Pantaleon (in Nalda), and the monasteries of Albelda and Las Tapias, in Albelda itself.
As at 1 January 2010 the population of Albelda de Iregua was 3,291 persons, 1727 men and 1564 women.[4]