During the reconquest of Andalucía, CAZORLA acted as an outpost for Christian troops, and the two castles which still dominate the town testify to its turbulent past - both were originally Moorish but later altered and restored by their Christian conquerors. Today it’s the main base for visits to the Parque Natural de las Sierras [...]
Another regional sierra “capital”, CAZALLA DE LA SIERRA seems quite a metropolis with its comparative abundance of facilities, and in fact the town dates back to the times of the Romans - its original name of Callentum was later changed to Kazalla (”fortified city”) by the Moors.
The main sight is the church of Nuestra Señora [...]
The first White Town on the route proper is CASTELLAR DE LA FRONTERA , 27km north from Algeciras, a bizarre village within a thirteenth-century castle, whose population, in accord with some grandiose scheme, was moved downriver in 1971 to the “new” town of Nuevo Castellar, whose modern square frames an image of their former castle [...]
Set on a low hill overlooking a fertile plain, CARMONA is a small, picturesque town made recognizable by the fifteenth-century tower of the Iglesia de San Pedro, built in imitation of the Giralda. The tower is the first thing you catch sight of and it sets a tone for the place - an appropriate one, [...]
South of Mojácar beach lie a succession of small, isolated coves, the most accessible of them reached down a rough coastal track that turns off towards the sea just under 4km down the road to Carboneras. The scenic Mojácar-Carboneras road itself winds perilously through the hills some way inland, and offers only occasional access to [...]
CAPILEIRA is the highest of the three villages in the Poqueira Gorge and the terminus of the road - Europe’s highest, but now closed to traffic - across the heart of the Sierra Nevada from Granada. In addition to the direct daily afternoon bus from Granada, continuing to Murtas and Bérchules, anything going to Ugíjar [...]
The village of CANDELEDA , on the Arenas-Jarandilla road, is nothing special but it’s amazingly popular with Spanish summer holiday-makers, who book its hostales weeks in advance. The turismo is in the Casa Cultura, close to the Plaza Mayor (daily 10am-1.30pm & 5-8pm; tel 920 380 396), and can provide helpful information on walking and [...]
BAEZA is tiny, compact and provincial, with a perpetual Sunday air about it. At its heart are the Plaza Mayor - in fact comprised of two linked plazas, the Plaza de la Constitucíon at the southern end with a garden, and the smaller Plaza de España to the north - and paseo , flanked by [...]
Heading north from Porto Cristo, it’s about 20km to ARTÀ , an ancient hill town of sun-bleached roofs clustered beneath a castellated chapel-shrine, with the bunching peaks of the Serres de Llevant providing a dramatic backdrop. It’s a delightful scene, though at close quarters the town is something of an anticlimax - the cobweb of [...]
The pretty streets of ARONA ’s tiny centre are good for a short stroll and the modest, typically Canarian, seventeenth-century Iglesia San Antonio Abad at its heart is also worth a peek, but the town is primarily of use as a good base from which to make the hike (4hr return) to the thousand-metre high [...]