View of the
town with the mountains behind Rooftops |
The easiest way to get to Canillas de Aceituno is
via Vélez-Málaga, taking first the C-335 country road and then the MA-125
local one. From the start of the latter the way climbs up to 645 metres
above sea level, the height of the village itself.
The village is situated in the foothills of the Sierra Tejeda and this
position gives it one of the very best views in the whole of the Axarquía,
all the way from Boquete de Zafarraya, at the boundary with the province of
Granada, to the coast. The municipal district of Canillas de Aceituno is
surrounded by mountain peaks - Maroma (2,068 metres - the highest one in the
whole of the province of Malaga, Fuerte (1,490 metres) and Rompealbaldas
(770 metres).
The village is 18 kilometres from Vélez-Málaga and just 7.8 from the
next-door village of Sedella. There are magnificent views of the Vélez and
Rubite valleys from the road linking the two villages, with olive, almond
and fig trees and vines growing beside it, all defying gravity and forming a
unique landscape. The special plots for drying grapes are also found here.
The municipality is quite wooded, the trees being watered by a large number
of local rivers, such as the Amánchares, the Bermuza and the Rubite, with
natural springs, such as the Gazuela and the Yedra. The area around Canillas
village is replete with natural caves, the main one being the Fájara, four
kilometres away, with tunnels as long as half a kilometre in length.
Keep going along the MA-125 and you will soon realise that it divides the
village into two parts, the road itself being the only part of the village
that is flat. Once in the village, look for Calle del Convento and Calle
Sierrecilla. You will get a panoramic view of the area from here and be able
to pick out the Moorish legacy clearly in the layout of the streets. The
Town Hall is situated in the Plaza de la Constitución, the only open space
in the village. Another of the interesting
streets in the village is Calle Castillo, where remains of the Arabic
fortress are to be found. The street known as Calle Cementerio is in fact
built over the old Arabic cemetery, from which it gets its name.
The origin of the name of Canillas del Aceituno is Canillas de Azzeitun,
which means olive groves. It was not until 1569, a decisive date in the
Moorish uprisings of those days, that the village was named as a significant
settlement on the Marqués de Comares estate. The outstanding event in this
period was a raid on the Pedro Mellado country inn, led by Andrés el
Xorairán, who was born in next-door Sedella. This attack caused the wrath
of the local keepers of justice, who captured and tortured eight Moors
living under Christian rule, picked arbitrarily, among them the Mayor of
Canillas himself. As a punishment Canillas was destroyed and left
uninhabited and its castle was razed to the ground by order of Philip II in
1571.
Places
to be visited
 |
Church
of Nuestra Señora del Rosario
The church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary and St Leon
Magnus, is in the upper part of the village. The terrace of this
sixteenth century building, on the site of a former mosque, is
another good place from which to gaze at the panoramic view. The
tower is rectangular at the base but octagonal higher up as are
many church towers in the Axarquía area. Inside there are two
eighteenth century baroque chapels. The image of the "Virgen
de la Cabeza", an oil painting from the end of the
seventeenth century and three medium sized statues - an eighteenth
century St Anthony, a St Francis from the beginning of the
eighteenth century and another St Anthony - are all on display
inside the the building.
Casa de los Diezmos
Another important building is the Casa de la Reina Mora (the
Moorish Queen’s House) with its arches and whitewashed brick. It
is also known as the Mudéjar Tower and the Casa de los Diezmos
(the House of the Tenth Part). It was in this Mudéjar building
that the production and sale of mulberry leaves and silk worms was
controlled for the whole area. There are two fountains in the
village, both of which are fed from an Arabic water reservoir
under the Town Hall.
Trekking
Canillas de Aceituno is the perfect municipality for rambling as
the village is surrounded by beautiful woods. Being situated in
the heart of the mountain ranges, it is an excellent place to
practice mountain biking and other activities like orienteering.
Various routes lead to local beauty spots, among the areas known
as La Fájara, Los Tajos Lisos, La Rábita and La Rahije. The
Fájara spring, which bubbles out inside the cave of the same
name, is of particular interest, being a spring that feeds the
River Bermuza all year round. Take care in the cave as the water
level can rise unexpectedly. For the more ambitious there is a
somewhat difficult path leading up to the top of La Maroma.
However, the fabulous view of the provinces of Malaga and Granada
from the top make it worth the effort.
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| Where
to eat |
Restaurante
La Bodega. C/Placeta.
Restaurante La Sociedad.
C/Iglesia.
Bar Angel. C/Agua.
Bar La Covacha. C/Llanillo.
Bar Andalucía. Plaza de la
Constitución.
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| Where
to sleep |
Canillas
has a number of rural houses to rent. For information, call the
following numbers:
C/Placeta. Tel: 952 518 102.
C/Agua. Tel: 952 518 062.
C/San Sebastián. Tel: 952 518 096.
C/San León. Tel: 952 181 100.
C/Placeta. Tel: 952 518 284.
C/Placeta. Tel: 952 518 210.
Rural
Accommodation in the province of Malaga
(in
Spanish)
|
Church of Nuestra
Señora del Rosario |
FIESTAS
The year is full of festivities in
Canillas and hardly a month goes by without some celebration or other
being held here. Among the most important ones are the carnival in
February, El Día de la Morcilla (black pudding day) on the last Sunday in
April, when all the visitors are given this type of sausage, with bread
and wine, and the romería in honour of St Isidro at the weekend which
falls nearest to May 15th.
The Eve of the Feast of St John is celebrated with an open-air dance for
the whole village. The feast day of the patron saint, the Virgen de la
Cabeza, is celebrated in the second week of August with four days of
partying and a procession of the holy image around the village streets. A
flamenco night is also organised at this time, with singing, including
local forms of fandango and verdiales, and wine flowing. In this context
it should be noted that a well-known singer from the world of flamenco,
Antonio Jiménez González, known as Antonio de Canillas, was born in the
village.
The calendar of festivities comes to a close for the year on September 7th
and 8th. This fiesta coincides with the harvesting of the grapes. In the
past the whole village would go out to pick the fruit, tread the grapes
and then meet up in the evening for singing and dancing around a fire.
GASTRONOMY
Muscatel grapes play an important part in
cooking in the village. As in most of the out-of-the-way villages in
Andalucía the local dishes are based on what was available, the way they
are combined being influenced by the Moorish inheritance of the area. These
dishes include gazpacho with moscatel grapes, ajoblanco, fried bread crumbs,
fennel stew, the succulent olla and the kid cooked in a wood oven or in
almond sauce. The most common craftwork in the area is in the use of rush
and wickerwork.
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