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Alameda,
Málaga
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Local Information |
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About The Area
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This Village of 5,500 inhabitant’s
lies north-west of Antequera is probably most famous
for its cadaverous celebrity El Tempranillo, the
legendary 19th century bandit born in nearby Jauja and
buried in Alameda's Iglesía de la Purísima Concepción
church. The so-called Principe de la Sierra, prince of
the mountains, is the most colourful of Andalucía's
many bandit heroes. |
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Alameda was first settled as a town
by the Phoenicians, but there is archaeological
evidence of habitation dating back to Paleolithic and
Neolithic times, probably 2-2,500 BCE. Vestiges of
these settlements can be seen at the Necrópolis
Calcolítica just outside the town, a system of over
twenty interconnected burial pits or ossuaries, some a
metre wide. |
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Alameda was also an important
settlement in Roman times, with the remains of a Roman
villa and baths and a wealth of artefacts discovered
suggesting a major trade and military base at the site
in the first century BC. The remains of the baths are
maintained in a 3000 square metre enclosure in Calle
Enmedio, and have been dated to between the first and
third centuries AC. The site is now a preserved
national monument. |
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Like much of the region, it was
overrun by Visigoth invaders and later by Moorish
settlers in the eighth century. The Catholic
reconquistadores took the town in 1240, relatively
early in the Reconquest, and when the new Spanish
order was established the town, then a small hamlet,
was placed under the control of the Marqués of Estepa,
to the north-west of the town. The region itself was
under the rule of the Order of Santiago - the Knights
of St James - until 1559, a time when Alameda had
barely thirty inhabitants. |
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The town grew during the 17th
century, thanks to its specialisation in esparto
grass, wood and carpentry (one version of the origin
of its name is from a poplar grove), and an influx of
settlers from Estepa itself. |
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In 1883 Alameda was incorporated
into the newly created province of Málaga, under the
control of Archidona. This was an unpopular and
confusing decision in a village that was still under
the orders of both the bishop of Estepa and the
archbishop of Seville. The town was only placed under
the orders of the archbishop of Málaga as late as
1959. |
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The baroque Iglesía de la Purísima
Concepción was built in 1696, the church tower being a
later addition, along with the remarkable rococo altar
piece at the head of the nave. The church was actually
expanded sideways in 1779 with two new aisles,
supported by eight massive pillars, to accommodate the
town's burgeoning new population. The tomb of El
Tempranillo can be seen in the church's interior
patio. |
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The main focus of Alameda is the
central Fuente de la Placeta, built from delicate
local stone at the time of King Carlos III, in the
Plaza de España. Until recent decades it was still the
main source of fresh water for the town, and the
sizeable width of the fountain's base, built perhaps
deliberately, made it impossible to fill a large
pitcher without leaning over and falling into the
fountain. Townsfolk developed a trick of putting the
pitcher on the ground and filling it using a hollow
cane reed. The nearby Plaza de la Constitution is a
pleasant tree-lined square with benches where
townspeople take their evening paseo, walk. |
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Just outside town, the Mirador de
la Camorra offers excellent views over the town and
surrounding landscape, some 250 metres higher than
Alameda's 430 metres above sea level. There's an easy
path to the top. A couple of kilometres west of town
is the Laguna de la Ratosa, like the nearby Fuente de
Piedra a place to find flamingos and other migrating
birds and an abundance of other
wildlife. |
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Alameda's key festivals are its
February Candelaria procession, the three-day
celebrations for its patron saint, San Isidro
Labrador, on 15-18 March, and the August feria, held
in the first week of the month. The town still
specialises in its work with esparto grass, wood and
carpentry, in particular silleria, the production of
wood seats. |
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