ANTEQUERA

city, Mlaga province, in the autonomous community (region) of Andalusia, southern Spain, northwest of Mlaga, at the foot of the Sierra del Torcal. Neolithic dolmens (Menga, Viera, and El Romeral) attest to prehistoric occupation of the site. The city, known to the Romans as Anticaria and to the Moors as Madinah Antakira, was reconquered for Christian Spain by the infante Don Fernando (Ferdinand, regent of Castile) in 1410, after which it served as a religious and seignorial centre. Examples of its 16th-century architecture include the churches of Santa Mara la Mayor of San Francisco and of San Sebastin, which houses works of the great Spanish painter Murillo. Agriculturally based, Antequera produces olives, cereals, fertilizers, sugar, ice cream, Christmas candles, woollen blankets, and cotton goods. Pop. (1981) 35,171.