Close to the African continent and its Moorish roots, our area of Andalucia is only 85kms north of Almeria in the extreme south east of Spain.
This once inaccessible region of Andalucia, with its high peaks and fertile valleys proved to be the last outpost of the Moors until they were eventually squeezed out of the Iberian peninsula in the late 15th century. Almeria is very much part of the thriving Spanish culture, however still very much interwoven with its rich historic past.
The Filabres and Sierra Cabrera mountains and indeed this whole area of Andalucia is full of ancient ruins dating to this period, some with fascinating stories to tell. All along the coast there are watchtowers that were part of the Moorish defence system. The great Palace at Almeria, since remodelled by the Christian kings of Spain, was once more opulent and grandiose than that of the Alhambra in Granada.
There is the legend of a Moorish girl that was cast under a spell. Trapped in a cave near La Alcantarilla she appears in the entrance at sunrise after the night of San Juan (June 23/24) combing her hair in front of a mirror. The last remaining mosque in all of Spain, now ruined, was expertly disguised as a Christian church. It sits only five miutes off the "silver road" in the foot hills of the Sierra Cabrera only a short walk from Cabrera itself. Today the deep rooted Catholic culture of Spain holds sway, although the whole region remains true to its ancient past, with architecture evocative of times gone by, making this area almost unique in Spain today.