Antequera, 45 kilometres
from Malaga city, is reached by taking the main autovía out
of the capital towards Granada, watching out for the sign at Las
Pedrizas. The valley opens out before us as we descend down into
it, and Antequera is just off to our left on the road to Cordoba.
This is a large plain rich in cultivation and with many typical
Andalusian-style farmhouses surrounded by olive trees and cereal
crops.
The entrance to the town is close to La Peña de los Enamorados.
With more than 800 square kilometres, this is the biggest municipality
in the province of Malaga, bordering the province of Cordoba to
the north and with the Mountains of Malaga to the south. The El
Torcal mountain range is closest to the town itself, and with the
passage of time, erosion has made this area into one of the most
interesting and beautiful in all of Andalucía. Shell and
marine-life fossils have been discovered in the valley, which tells
us that the area was covered in water millions of years ago. The
Peña de los Enamorados is left behind us as we head into
the town and this hill is rich in legend and history. One legend
tells of the bodies of two lovers buried at the foot of the hill,
he Christian and she Moorish, who had fled to the peak to escape
from their angry families, and finally threw themselves off in a
suicide pact. True or not is unimportant, because this hill, bordered
by the river Guadalhorce, arouses the stuff that legends are made
of in all of us.
The privileged situation of Antequera, in the geographical centre
of Andalucía, had made it one of the most important towns
between upper and lower Andalucía, Granada and Seville. It
is a modern town these days, complete with all the services and
shopping facilities one would expect in a large town, but it also
has a past rich in culture and history that is, perhaps, unequalled
in any other southern Spanish town of its size. There are many archaeological
remains from the Bronze Age, such as the dolmens at Menga, Viera
and El Romeral, all burial grounds of the highest order. It is believed
that the Iberians, the Tartessus tribes, the Phoenicians and the
Carthaginians all settled here at one time or another, and Carthaginian
remains have been found at Cerro León, where the battle between
the Romans and the Carthaginians of Asdrúbal took place.
The Moors later named the place Medina Antecaria. After the conquest
of Seville and Jaén, Antequera took on great strategic importance
as a military frontier fortification. It was conquered in 1410 by
the infante Don Fernando, known in the history books as Don Fernando
de Antequera. The 19th century was tragic for Antequera. Its population
was decimated by the Napoleonic invasion and the yellow fever of
1804, and it was not until 1830 that a prosperous middle class emerged
as a result of the growing textile industry. This sector was to
suffer once more in the beginning of the 20th century. Antequera
is now a modern town that is ideally placed to receive tourists,
in which history still lives in its numerous monuments and historical
buildings.
Places to be visited:
The Dolmen Complex
Churches and Convents
Ancestral Homes
Torcal de Antequera
Convento de Las Descalzas Museum
Tourist information:
Municipal Tourist Office, Pza. de San Sebastián, 7.
Phone: 952 702 505 Fax: 952 702 505
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