Olvera - Cádiz
Olvera is a moorish village in the northwestern triangle of the Sierra of Cádiz. It was declared a Protected Area of historical-artistic importance in 1983. It can be found at a crossroad where roads between the provinces of Cádiz, Malaga and Seville meet. It rises 643 metres above the sea level and lies a very mountainous area ( Zaframagón, Líjar, Harinas, Zarzaparral, Conejos...) wich gives a certain character to the landscape surrondings Olvera where reddish land alternates whith patches of bruswood, hillocks with olive groves, cereals and and stubble. All this elevations are crossed by the Guadalporcún and Salado rivers that flow in to Guadalete river.
The weather is temperate with marked dry summers and mean annual temperatures of above 22º C and mild winters.
Its economy is based principally on agriculture and stockbreending and changes in agricultural structures, although another king of industry has more and more consecuences. The greater part of people are working in cooperatives (cured, cakes, chicken slaughtering, furniture, textiles, concrete, constructions, etc).
Th history of Olvera is full of unknown factors and open questions. For some people Olvera is HIPPA or HIPPONOVA wich Pliny mentions in his "HISTORY" and for from Cádiz to Córdoba.
Other information on the Roman and Visigothic periods is missing. In moorish chronicles it already appears as a frontiers enclave in the Muslin outposts in the mountains, WUBIRA or URIWILA.
The Christian conquest planned Seville was part of the forward strategy heading for the Straits of Gibraltar in order to prevent the entrance to the Muslims.
The Olvera stronghold was first occupied by the troops of King Alfonso XI in 1327. After negotiations following the surrender of the village the Muslims keep their houses and possesions while the Christians organised their settlement under the Chart of the village granted in August 1, 1327. In the middle of the fourteenth century and feudal state of Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán.
Late on Olvera changed hands and was taken over by the Zúñiga familly but eventually it was sold to the Téllez Girón familly, later made Dukes of Osuna, owners of the village until the nineteenth century.
Contemporary history of Olvera passes withing national events such as the War of Independence, highwymen, dominan by local bosses, social movements, etc.
At present at after having overcome the first decades of the twentieth century Olvera continues with agriculture, forest development and stockbreending, activities that are complemented more and more by the touristed development of the village and its surroundings as well as by cooperative systems.
Monuments
Olvera Conjunto Histórico Artístico
Barrio de la Villa
Casa de La Cilla
Monument to the Sacred Heart
Convento de Caños Santos
Distances
To Cádiz 131 km
To Sevilla 110 km
To Málaga 123 km
To Ronda 49 km
To Marbella 112 km |
