History
The origins of this population are marked by the benefits the medicinal waters of its environments have provided. Since the Neolithic the area was populated by different people that take place in the history of Cádiz. In the Roman period, the abundance of remains like mosaics, tombs and overall, coins of Gades, talk us about the attendance of families from Cádiz to the bathing areas of Gigonza, a famous place for its medicinal waters and very close to our population.
After these, the Byzantines and Visigoths also visited us. The Muslims, after their landing in the peninsula, also enjoyed the bathing areas of Fuente Sana and Gigonza, in addition to the fertility of the grounds of Paterna, baptizing the place as “Valle de los Baños”.
Since the Christian conquest onwards, the meadow of Paterna comes to be property of the family Enríquez de Ribera, owner of Alcalá de los Gazules and its township, whose descendents, since Mr. Per Afán de Ribera in 1444, had been developing their small village. The definitive foundation of the village of Paterna is produced in 1503, by Mr. Francisco Enríquez de Ribera, who formed his Council-City Hall.
In the 19th Century, several significant events for this population take place. On the one hand, the visitants begin to come due to the attraction of the mildness of the bathing areas of Gigonza and Fuente Sana during the bathing period, from June to September, with which it is improved the life quality of the people of Paterna.
On the other hand, the establishment is linked in September with the cattle fairground, which adds standing to the cattle production of the area.
And finally, it is accomplished an old aspiration of the neighbors of Paterna, the full emancipation from the City Council of Alcalá in 1825. Nowaydays, Paterna de Rivera continues the tradition and its economy is based on the cultivation of land and the cattle exploitation of horses and bovine, of great valor and recognized popularity. It is famous because of its fierce livestock, being located in the core of the Route of the Ball and boor and dark, besides its horses of Hispanic-Arabic breed.