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Information on Frigiliana |
A very charming and
traditional Andalucian village |
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Surface Area: |
40 square kilometres |
Population: |
about 2,300 |
What the natives are called: |
Frigilianenses. Nickname: Aguanosos |
Monuments: |
the San Antonio church, former
granary, Palacio de los Condes de Frigiliana (Palace
of the Counts of Frigiliana), Ecce Homo hermitage,
walls of the Castillo de Lizar (Lizar castle),
Palacio del Apero (El Apero palace), Algar culture
menhir (standing stone), and the Phoenician necropolis |
Geographical Location: |
in the eastern part La Axarquía,
in the foothills of the Almijara mountain range.
The village is more than 430 metres above sea
level. It is 56 kilometres from the provincial
capital and only 6 from Nerja. The area records
an average annual rainfall of about 600 litres
per square metre and the average temperature is
18º C. |
Tourist Information: |
Town Hall, Calle Real, 80 (29788). Telephone:
952 533 002 |
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The south slope of the Almijara mountain
range takes up a large part of the municipality
of Frigiliana and its topography is complex
and rich in contrasts, with peaks that,
without reaching the heights of that mountain
mass, do easily exceed 1,000 metres, such
as Sierra de Enmedio (1,164 metres), or
that are close to that height as in the
case of El Fuerte (976 metres).
The River Chillar marks the boundary of
this municipality and that of Nerja, and
its tributary the Higuerón provides,
with its so-called Hoces del Río
Higuerón (Gorges of the River Higuerón),
one of the most striking natural sites in
the entire area. It, and the cliffs and
gorges of the River Chillar itself, form
an incomparably scenic landscape. The terraced
market gardens that, at the village, begin
their descent toward the coast, between
the dazzling white of the houses and the
blue Mediterranean in the background, are
another feature of an area whose image will
remain engraved in the traveller’s
memory for a very long time.
Travellers coming to Frigiliana for the
first time will probably have a preconceived
idea about the village, since many different
clichés have been used to describe
it. |
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In fact, these same
clichés could describe any of the typical
Andalusian mountain villages that look out over
the sea.this case, however, all the clichés
are true. and are even surpassed by an ineffable
sensation that is as hard to describe as it is
easy to perceive and that perhaps no one can accurately
identify unless by resorting to another cliché:
bewitchment.
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Clichés
aside, the historic quarter of Frigiliana,
of all those in the entire province,
is considered to be one that has best
preserved its original Moorish form.
Its anarchic street plan-anarchic
from the twenty-first century perspective-leads
the visitor from one surprise to another:
unexpectedly massive architecture,
streets, alleys, covered passageways,
stairways, plants and flowers in the
most unlikely places, a mixture of
fragrances from hidden sources, ancient
history in new whitewash… And
once you leave the intimacy and constriction
of its streets, the breadth of a superb
landscape above the Eastern Costa
del Sol.
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© Tourist
Board Costa del Sol |
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© Tourist
Board Costa del Sol |
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Remains found
in 1987 in the Cueva de los Murciélagos
(The Bat cave) attest to the presence of
man in this territory from the late Neolithic
period (3,000 B. C.) until the Calcolithic
or Copper Age (2.000 B. C.). There is a
menhir (standing stone) from the late Algar
culture that provides evidence that man
was present in this area in that era, and
very near the village is the Cerrillo de
las Sombras necropolis from the Phoenician
epoch (700-600 B. C.).
The Romans occupied this territory in 206
B.C. through treaties with the native population
and, Frigiliana was included in the Conventus
de Gades. The name of the village comes
from the Romans. It derives from Frexinius
(a personage about whom nothing is known)
and the suffix “ana”, which
means source, that is to say the place or
villa of Frexinius.
Little is known about the history of Frigiliana
from the arrival of the Arabs to the Peninsula
in 711 A. D. until the late ninth century,
when the fortress was built, except that
it was under the leadership of Omar Ben
Hafsun. During the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries, it formed part of the Nazarite
Kingdom. The village surrendered to the
Christian troops in 1485 without bloodshed.
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Bit by bit, however, the
Moors were stripped of the few rights that they had
(they farmed the worst soil and were forbidden to speak
and write their language or wear their traditional dress)
until the Moorish rebellion broke out in the Alpujarras
mountains and was brutally put down by the Christians.
The Moors from La Axarquía and the Málaga
mountains, expecting the aid promised by Aben Humeya
from the Alpujarras and also aid from North Africa,
sought refuge in El Fuerte de Frigiliana (the Fort of
Frigiliana), where some 7,000 of them gathered.
On 28 May 1569, the corregidor (magistrate) of Vélez
began the first assault with the ominous outcome of
20 dead and 150 wounded among the Christian troops.
At that time, 25 galleys of the Italian fleet were sailing
in the Mediterranean and the corregidor of Vélez
asked for assistance in squashing the Frigiliana insurgents.
On this occasion, it was 6,000 men who confronted the
Moors, who were defeated despite their resistance on
11 June 1569. There were 2,000 killed and 3,000 captives
among the defeated forces (some 2,000 escaped) and 400
dead and 800 wounded among the victors.
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© Tourist Board Costa
del Sol |
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© Tourist Board Costa del Sol |
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The Battle of El Peñón de Frigiliana has been reproduced by Amparo
Ruiz de Luna, somewhat in the manner if a “romance
de ciego” ballad, on glazed ceramic panels that
can be seen at the present time in various places in
the village.
From that date until the nineteenth century, misfortune
rained down upon Frigiliana. When it was not the plague
that decimated the population, it was a storm that destroyed
the crops, or an earthquake, or the phylloxera pest
that attacked the grapevines or an outbreak of yellow
fever that caused havoc. It would not be until the arrival
of tourism that Frigiliana, like the rest of the Costa
del Sol, entered into a period of prosperity and social
and economic peace.
© Copyright 2005 - Costa del Sol Tourist Board
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