Alacaudete in brief

[onlymark]

In southern Spain, in roughly the centre of Andalucía, is a town of just 12000 inhabitants nestled in the olive groves that are a feature of this area. Alcaudete.
It has a long and often violent history from Roman times through conquest and reconquest up to the Spanish Civil War of the 20th Century.
The reason I’m focussing on this town a little is because it is the largest close to a house I have in the area, a cortijo.
It’s not a tourist town even though it has its own attractions. It’s not set up with tourist facilities even though in recent years there have been a few alterations like better signage at the few major sites.
It is in essence a working town with no pretensions but just so happens to have a couple of interesting things to see as a bit of a sideline. A no nonsense town which is reflected in its architecture, its lack of frills and the bells and whistles that seem to cheapen some places.
If you are a tourist then there are places to stay and things to eat, the people are friendly enough, but if you don’t visit then you get the impression you won’t be missed. Life will go on as normal.

The town is roughly central between Cordoba, Granada and Jaen so was always going to be of interest to invading hoards and traders.
After the Romans built a small fortification there, the Visigoths took over the town followed by looting from Arab rebels trying to decide who was the strongest faction. Eventually in 912AD Abd-ar-Rahman took over the town and a period of peace developed. Eventually though, after the town changed hands between Muslim and Christian several times, it remained in Christian hands from the 14th Century.

During all these comings and goings the castle was added to by various peoples, the encircling walls getting larger to encompass the growing town but as time passed and no more threats appeared the walls and the castle fell into disrepair.
In the Civil War (1936-1939), Alcaudete was located in the Republican area and was almost on the front line resulting in numerous air raids.

Anyway, first we’ll have a walk up the streets to the castle. Just in front of the castle is the Church of Santa Maria we’ll see in a minute.









A quick view of some of the old town defensive wall –





And the castle itself –



No frilly bits on any of that, is there? You can see from the initial look at the streets and buildings they don’t spend too much time prettifying things up. The castle itself is ‘businesslike’ to put it mildly.



As you near the top you get a bit of a view of the surrounding countryside –



My kids asked me once if I could guess how many olives there were in the area. Not trees – but olives. I declined to guess.



Every town must have its social housing and this is Alcaudete’s –





A remnant of the summer festivities –





As you get closer to the castle there are a few information boards giving some scant information. Like this one showing a representation of what the place must have looked like on being built, or added to, it wasn’t clear –





Another bit of information –





After walking all the way round to find the entrance, I did so –



However, as these things seem to be here, it was locked with no opening times.
This is actually the third or fourth time I’ve been here, each time calling first at a small tourist information office who assure me it’s open. It never is. This time, as once before, after my visit I returned to the office to be told if I waited, someone would come. They never do.



A peek through the gate railings though assure me the ammunition for the ballistas is still in readiness –





The keep is still there as well, looking to me somewhat like and ancient version of SpongeBob Squarepants either just having sucked a lemon or showing a moue of disapproval at something –





Anyway, I take solace in a panorama of its redoubtable walls showing not a twiddly bit anywhere –





On the way down I pass by what would have been some very protected houses cut into the hillside. Now in ruins but probably occupied until fairly recently –





















A nice feature lamppost as I swing round from the castle to the church –







The side of the church at the foot of the castle –





Slip round to the front –





Find, as I expected, it is also closed but see some scant information –





The later edition of the belfry –





Now, should I take the short cut, or the longer way to the town centre?
The short cut –





Not very attractive. So it’s the slightly longer but nicer street –



See the old bloke on the right? Bit of a fixture he is. Just nearly opposite him is a cafe I regularly call at for breakfast. He’s nearly always there until the sun forces him to toddle off back down the hill.



A bit further down –





Past the indoor market that since being renovated still doesn’t seem too popular –





Past where the short cut would have brought me out –





Have a bit of an aimless wander round –











Slip inside a church that is actually open –





Notice they are doing up one of the side streets and putting some new cobbles down –





Through the arch that separates the newer part of the town from the medieval one leading up to the castle –





And into the town square of the oldest part of the town. See if you can spot how they’ve seamlessly incorporated new building into the old –











So as I walk out of the town I pass by what must be the most basic church facade I’ve come across. Hidden down the backstreets (I spotted it from the castle) and probably only really known to the locals. There was no name, no service times and no information at all. It makes me wonder what it would be like inside (if the door was ever open). Another example of the utilitarian approach to life here–









Just outside of town there are areas of beauty. One is the Laguna de Salobral –



Well known in the area for the migrating birds using it as a stop off but it doesn’t always have water.
It’s just at the side of the Via Verde del Aciete (The Olive Oil Greenway) which is one of the cycling tracks around Spain built on disused railway lines –
www.viasverdes.com/GreenWays/Itineraries


Just round the corner a little, hidden away and overgrown, is a remnant of the Spanish Civil War. What was known as a blockhouse. Basically a central reinforced building set into the hill where a number of soldiers stayed. Radiating away from the central point and connected by tunnels are several gun emplacements overlooking a strategic road, this one overlooking the road from Alcaudete to the west.
The soldiers would man the guns, being relieved from time to time and guard and monitor traffic on the road.

The central building housing supplies and soldiers had lost its roof –





But it’s a veritable rabbit warren of passages and alcoves, nooks and crannies –

















But your intrepid and fearless reporter got to grips with the situation, jumped down into the building and decided to see where the passages led –











Well, they led to the obvious places – gun emplacements.
The view from emerging into one –





From the outside –







What they would have looked out on –





Anyway, a brief tour of the town and surroundings.
Alcaudete is part of the Route of the Caliphate detailing 800 years or so of the Moors in the area –
www.andalusia-web.com/route_2.htm
Also, “The routes of Al Andalus” which are mountain biking routes following old Arab trading roads from Granada and one of the routes of the reconquest when Christian forces retook the areas for the final time eventually pushing out the ruler, Boabdil (Abu Abdallah Muhammad XII), from Granada in 1492.

Slight digression to finish off – when Boabdil left Granada to the south for the last time he reached a rise where his last view of the city would be. The place, now on the main dual carriageway from Granada to the coast at Motril I’ve driven down many a time is called “El ultimo suspiro del Moro” – ‘The last sigh of the Moor’.). Boabdil burst into tears apparently and his mother said to him “Thou dost weep like a woman for what thou couldst not defend as a man.”

Not a lot of sympathy there then.

[bixaorellana]

I'm completely fascinated by this, Mark. There was a little trepidation, as I remember the Spain of my childhood well and fondly. But many of the pictures you show could be from back then. The ones at the beginning & the ones of the church you passed on the way out of town certainly explain why Mexico looks the way it does.

I remember seeing cave houses in use when I was a kid, and the countryside was dotted with military pillboxes still in good condition. Any idea why that blockhouse has the ornamental work on the wall? Odd.

The castle is great! It so clearly states its purpose -- keep out! don't even try it! Every line says "fortress".

Yesterday I was reading an article about towns in Spain struggling with bad economy, lack of jobs, etc. Has this area been affected? From your introduction, I have the impression that the town has always adapted to whatever the centuries bring it, working away and maintaining.

Can't wait to show this thread to my mother!

Oh -- what's a cortijo, please?

[onlymark]

A Cortijo is a farmhouse, a house out in the countryside usually with a bit of land. Our bit of land though is somewhere between 15000 - 20000 square metres (4-5 acres) and is unusable agriculturally as it's a rocky hill.
We tend not to get cave houses in that area, the rock isn't the right stuff, but there are one or two. Further north and west there are plenty. The decoration was unusual and I can't see a reason for it other than the obvious attempt just to pretty it up a bit when it was in use.

The town has adapted, or rather been a little less affected, as it relies mostly on olive growing which, as long as there is a market for it, has been less affected. Unemployment though is a problem and I seem to remember being told that previously you got a payment for planting olive trees but that is no more, so maybe there will be a knock on effect from that.

The area produces reputably the best oil in the world and Andalucia is supposed to produce the best of the best with a large percentage of world production. So there is a reliance for the economy on it but so far they've done quite well with it. I do see though many men of working age hanging around more and more with the old retired men in the shade on a hot day.

[bjd]

This is interesting, Mark. The area does look as I imagine southern Spain to look -- minus the picturesque "white villages" -- dry, olive trees. I suppose the town's name comes from the Arabic?

Foolishly, I hadn't really imagined bunkers and gun emplacements in the Spanish Civil War. More like people hiding behind ridges with their rifles -- too much George Orwell and Robert Capa obviously.

I also find it interesting that someone from green England likes living in hot dry countries.

[onlymark]

A big giveaway on the origin of the name is the 'Al' bit. That usually denotes in countries where there has been an Arabic occupation or influence that the name is from those times - or so I believe.
I'm with you on the Civil War thing. I spotted these emplacements from the road as it's enroute to and old railway station converted to a restaurant/bar/cafe that I also tend to visit. There is one across from it on the other side of the road somewhere that I also spotted but can't seem to find it again this time.

I asked a local in the cafe what they were and via a bit of a translation I found out. I went to see them but they are on a hill through some olive fields. I stopped my car to walk up to them but as I did so another car pulled up and asked me if I was wanting to go up there. My affirmative answer led him to indicate to follow him, in the car, at which he drove straight off the road and through the olive groves to stop at the side.
He gave a little wave and drove back down again.
I can only hope he was the land owner.

Funny about not wanting to live in a miserable wet overcast country, isn't it?

[Deleted]

Alacaudete looks perfectly fine to me, Mark, and even a bit tidier than most French towns of the same size. "Everybody" in Europe is now doing the recobbled streets with the gutter down the center, and I approve, because it looks much better than the 1960's and 70's versions of asphalt streets that they usually replace. It's even better when there are no sidewalks, because it indicates to the motorists that they do not have the right to go racing around at top speed.

Hilltop fortresses sometimes perplex me, even though they are so common all along the southern rim of Europe and the northern rim of Africa. Obviously, I will never be recognized as an outstanding military strategist, but those places always strike me as the military version of painting yourself into a corner when they are on a big round hill. Okay, you can see what's going on down on the plain but considering the weapons back then, hitting anybody with a cannonball or a big round rock would be close to a miracle.

The destroyed rock dwellings intrigue me, but I would assume that the people living there were evicted for sanitary and safety reasons.

[onlymark]

Fortresses/castles etc are something that does interest me ever since having a good look round Krak des Chevaliers in Syria, an old Crusader fort, and really, really massive.
But I understand what you mean, however it's only in recent times that you would use the fortress in the way you mean. Before gunpowder and accurate cannon they were purely defensive.

You'd invade an area, build a fortress or two and use them as a base while you went off on your horse to raid other places. As soon as another invading force arrived you'd scuttle back and hunker down hoping their siege engines, ballistas etc failed to gain access for them.
With the advent of accurate cannon the death knell was sounded for medieval fortifications with their round towers in the mid-15th century and star shaped ones became easier to defend - which is still exactly how they were used, for defense.

The pinnacle of fortress design was instigated by the Italians but it took a Frenchman, Sébastien Le Prestre to refine them to the ultimate -
fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9bastien_Le_Prestre_de_Vauban
You can't take a fortress anywhere so you can't attack from it, you can only defend from an attack and use it as a base to control an area/road/strategic point.

So when good artillery was developed and based in a fort it was used to try and keep an attacking force at arms length, or scare the shit out of any pirates coming to take over your harbour. You were still struggling to hit anything but the sheer threat of it hanging over your attacking force was enough to cause pause for thought.
There were many examples though over the years when a really strong fort was just left alone when an invading force, errr...... invaded. They just went round it to mop it up later or leave it to stagnate when it was clearly surrounded and the major battle for the country/area lost.

[onlymark]

I assume the same about the rock houses as well, I've not asked but I would expect those reasons were the ones.

[Deleted]

Oct 2, 2011 16:30:47 GMT onlyMark said:

There were many examples though over the years when a really strong fort was just left alone when an invading force, errr...... invaded. They just went round it to mop it up later or leave it to stagnate when it was clearly surrounded and the major battle for the country/area lost.

That's what I would think as well: "That's a really bad ass fortress! We'd better not fuck with them!" The more visible and the more massive, the more dissuasive.

[bixaorellana]

Thanks for the answers, Mark. Do you know if your land was ever farmed?

I love seeing those ranks and ranks of olive trees. When I was a kid, we stopped by a grove and picked a few fresh ones to taste.     That was a deterrent to thievery! Is the olive crop processed there or all shipped away?

The link is interesting. Just going to the fortress towns would be several enjoyable day trips.

[onlymark]

My own land was never farmed. Too rocky. It may look ok but it's only a surface covering of soil bound together by the vegetation. Plenty of big. big rock things everywhere.
In digging out the back patio you may notice them if you look carefully -



All the olive crop, thousands of tons of it, are processed locally. There are refineries(?) in every town and even one in the small village near where I live. They might travel 20km or so but rarely more than that. The best are hand picked, as are those surrounding me.

[nycgirl]

What an interesting and informative report! I enjoyed reading about the history of the area. I also enjoyed perusing your photos and noticed little details that I didn't see at first glance. For instance, when looking at the pretty patterned tiles on the walls of the ruins, I saw a shiny little brass teapot.

The blockhouse looks really fun to explore. Thanks for sharing.

[onlymark]

Can't see the teapot. Where?
If it's still there when I go again in December I'll dig it out.

[nycgirl]

It's depicted on the tiled walls.

[onlymark]

Aha!
I see it now.

[auntieannie]

Mark, do you think a forest garden would be suitable for your land or the rocky things will get in the way?

[Deleted]

I heard that Mick was coming over with a supply of cacti.

[onlymark]

Whatever a forest garden is then if it works, we'll have it. The top of the hill is reasonably flat but full of wild grass and stuff. You can get an idea from these photos. The aerial shot was taken way way long time ago, don't know when -







I'm open to suggestions.

If mick comes with some cacti I think he'll need a few containers full.

[auntieannie]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_garden



Look for "edible forest gardening", "food forest", permaculture...

[onlymark]

Give me a minute. In fact I'll watch it and then pass it on to mu wife. She's the one who'd sort it all out.
Thanks.