Los Guájares

Los Guajares consists of three distinct population centres in the small subtropical valley formed by the Toba River, between the Sierra de Las Guájar to the north and to the south and south west by la Chaparral. The municipality covers an area of 8,543 hectares and the total population is 1.327, three mountain centres which all retain the Moorish air of their beginnings, these being: Guájar-Alto, Guájar-Faraguit and Guájar-Fondón.

Los Guájares was named from the Arabic word Wa-run, meaning abrupt, steep, difficult to access. The first settlers seem to have been ‘almohades’ living in cortijos (farms), and where now stand Bernardilla and Guájar la Vieja, under the jurisdiction of the municipality of Motril-Salobreña, around the river Guadalfeo.

With the Christian conquest in the fifteenth century, there was a break-up of Los Guajares as Faraguit was given to Luis de Portocarrero, lord of Palma, and later, Fondón, to Juan de Ulloa. The repression of the Moors, by the Marquis de Mondéjar, was particularly cruel in this area because many were put to the sword or ‘cast down into the pits’ and the others expelled. Much later the region was repopulated by settlers from other regions.

Monuments

El Castillejo
Iglesia de la Encarnacion (Church of the Incarnation, Guajar Alto)
Iglesia Parroquial de San Antonio de Padua (Parish Church of San Antonio de Padua, Guájar Fondón)
Iglesia Parroquial de San Lorenzo (Parish Church of San Lorenzo, Guájar Faraguit)
Acequias Almohades (irrigation ditches)
Archaeological Remains

Gastronomy

Choto, migas, baked fennel, thistle casserole, rabbit with garlic, grilled rabbit, ‘remojon’, ‘salamandroña’ casserole ‘Espartero’, fried squash, dried tomatoes, fried donuts, fritters, ‘pestinos’, donuts and dried figs.

Directions

Leave Granada. At the roundabout, take exit 4 Continue along: E-902 / A-44 direction: Armilla - Motril. Take N-323. Follow signs to Velez de Benaudalla .Through Velez de Benaudalla. Turn left: N-323. Turn right: GR-3204. Arrive at Guájar-Faraguit.

Distances from Guájar-Faraguit