MORON DE LA FRONTERA

city, Seville provincia, in the Andalusia comunidad autnoma (autonomous community), southwestern Spain. It lies in the valley of the Guadalquivir River, near the northwestern foothills of the Penibtico Mountain System. The site was founded by the Phoenicians, and the place was settled by the Romans, who called it Arunci. The Arabs later gave it a hybrid name: the Hebrew moram, meaning elevated site, and the Spanish frontera, referring to its 250-year position at the border of the Muslim kingdom of Granada. Reconquered by Meln Rodrguez Gallinato for Ferdinand III of Len and Castile, it was ceded to Seville for repopulation by Christians after its Muslim inhabitants had been driven out. On a hill above the city stand the ruins of a Moorish castle, abandoned in the 17th century and partly destroyed by the French in 1812. Basically an agricultural community, Morn produces olives, olive oil, wheat, and liquors, as well as construction materials. Pop. (1981) 27,311.