Casares - Málaga

Casares is 14 kilometres from the busy and cosmopolitan Costa del Sol, this town shows the visitor the most genuine flavour of the towns from the mountains that, miraculously, have escaped from an absurd and misunderstanding modernity. This town has preserved in its urban area that air of still time and has updated the infrastructures that the present life demands. It is not easy to obtain that balance, but Casares has achieved it and this town is considered one of the most beautiful towns in Spain and in 1978 it was declared Historic-Artistic Site.

Casares is located in the far southwest of Málaga. It stretches over the last southern folds of the Serranía de Ronda, what results in an extension of this, and in the eastern edge of the Campo de Gibraltar. 
 
It is located 38º 26´34” degrees latitude North and 1º 35´05” degrees longitude West, with 435 metres above sea level and the slopes with a 23%.  The town has an area of 162,24 Km2

Its border boundaries are:  
 - To the North: with Genalguacil y Gaucín.   
 - To the West: with Cádiz, to be precise with Jimena de la Frontera. 
 - To the South: with Manilva, San Roque and the Mediterranean Sea. 
 - To the East: with Estepona.

History

The history of Casares is so long and old that until it is mixed in the origin of its name, like in all the thousand-year-old places, the history and the legend. For some, Casares derives from Caxara, "fortress" in Arab, while others say that it derives from the name of Caesar (Cesar), political and military Roman leader, who recovered from a skin illness in the baths of La Hedionda, known in this way because the particular smell of the sulphurous waters.

However, it seems that the town was the Iberian Lacipo (Aleschipe) that remained with the Roman presence, until in the IV century it disappeared. In that age the town was visited by the emperor Adriano, who was to Cádiz.

During the Muslim Age, Casares, like other enclaves located in the border of the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada, had a huge strategic importance due to its castle, Arab fortress where it took place the "Pacto de Casares", collected by the chronicles, that sealed the alliance between Pedro I "El Cruel" and the dethroned Mohamed V de Granada in order that Mohamed recovered the kingdom.

After the conquest of Ronda, Casares is member of the Christian kingdoms. From that moment, it starts the repopulation of the area, ceded the duke of Cádiz, by ancient Christians in the coast, while the Moorish stay in the mountain range. This was the favourable environment that in 1570 would use the Moorish uprising stifled by Juan de Austria, being precisely Casares the place where the duke of Arcos and the Moorish ringleaders would negotiate its end.

During several centuries Casares was not suffer changes, except for the division of Manilva, in 1795, and the popular uprising in 1810 against the French invader, obtaining, because of the courage, bravery and intelligence of the members of its groups, that together with Cádiz, Casares was the only town that the French do not take.

However for the most part of the travellers who nowadays visit this beautiful town, that stretches until the coast, along fourteen kilometres of mountain range and scrubland, until it goes as far as a lovely and careful beach, the most significant piece of information of its history was the birth, July 5th, 1885, of Blas Infante Pérez de Vargas, who has been defined the "padre de la patria andaluza", pride of the people from Casares and whose birthplace you can visit still.

Monuments

Baños de la Hedionda
Church of La Encarnación
Casa Natal de Blás Infante
Casares (Historic-Artistic Site)
Cemetery 
Hermitage of La Veracruz
Castle of Casares
Fountain of Carlos III
Church of La Encarnación
Church of San Sebastián
Flour Mills
Monument to Blás Infante
Puente Acueducto de Los Baños
Ruins of La Muralla Árabe
Tower of La Sal
Roman Town of Lacipo
Hermitage of La Virgen del Rosario

Gastronomía

In Casares we can find typical dishes like the pucheros con pringá, fry of kid and the cheeses, the same way as the fried fish and the salad of sardines.

You can also taste the rabbit, the soups of maimones, black pudding of kid, the stew of potatoes, the oatmeal porridge and the gazpacho from Casares.

As for the confectionery in Casares, we can emphasize its fried flat cakes and the sponge cakes sprinkled with honey or chocolate. 

How to get there

Through the Motorway AP-7 (N340), on the same latitude as Manilva, you have to take the road A-377, and after scouring ten kilometres through this road, you are going to see the turning for Casares.

Ruta Pasada del Pino - La Acedía

Distance: 13 km 
Length: 5 hours 
Difficulty: medium-hard  
Discipline: on foot

The path leaves the crossroads La Acedía with the road M-546. We have to go down the lane until you cross the stream of La Acedía, crossing the public mountain with the same name after leaving some houses behind you, we have to climb the side of Sierra Bermeja, leaving your left the muladar (vultures’ feeder).

The main track leads us towards the hollow in La Garganta de la Acedía, known like La Pasada del Pino. From there we have to follow towards the south, the track that finishes sharply to continue by a narrow path that passes along the crest, that connects with a forest track, that after crossing the stream of La Acedía, lead us to the starting point.

This is an interesting route because it offers us beautiful scenery of Sierra Bermeja and Valle de la Acedía. When it is sunny we can see the Campo de Gibraltar and Montes de Africa.

Distances

To Manilva 12 km
To Estepona 22 km
To Marbella 50 km
To Fuengirola 78 km
To Torremolinos 92 km
To Málaga 105 km
To Ronda 57 km
To La Linea 45 km
To Algeciras 60 km
To Gibraltar 47 km