Leaving very early, the first stop will be Vélez Málaga, taking the A7. Upon arrival, I park in one of the two highest parts of the city, the hermitage of the Virgen de los Remedios. You can see the image of the city in the following photograph, with the almond trees in bloom heralding the arrival of spring.



The first stop will be at the Palace of the Marques de Beniel. The patio, the staircase and the Mudejar roof of the same stand out. You can see the noble shields flanking the main entrance, review of the marquisate. Artistically, the result was a building with a Mannerist façade clearly influenced by the works of Sebastián de Serlio, whom Molina Medrano must have had special admiration for, where the freedom of the proto-Baroque character can be appreciated. An imperial staircase with a Renaissance character, with two floors plus the attic.

Nearby is the convent of San Francisco, very modest on the outside but which houses incredible religious altarpieces. It was founded by the Catholic Monarchs in the 15th century and underwent numerous reconstructions in the 16th and 17th centuries. Its interior, with two naves, stands out for its rich decoration. Next to the church, two cloisters deserve special mention, one Mudejar and the other Renaissance, linked together by a beautiful staircase. The baroque ceilings and cupola have some paintings. One of the chapels has the original paintings from 5 centuries ago. In the image you can see the baroque decoration of one of the chapels of the church.

Nearby is the largest and main church of Vélez, the church of San Juan Bautista. Its interior is very simple with some wooden carvings of saints.

Next to San Juan Bautista is the town's granary where exhibitions are often held, the remains of the wall, the gate of the town and the Royal fountain. The old Muslim city (La Medina) was protected by a walled belt, which surrounded and marked its precise limits until the 13th century. In order to access or leave the urban nucleus, there were three gates (Granada, Antequera and Málaga) of which only the Puerta Real de la Villa remains, the old gate of Málaga that was integrated into the urban nucleus. due to the growth of the suburb in the fourteenth century. It has an access in a bend and semicircular arches, being protected by a large rectangular tower that acts as an albarrana as an advanced defense of the access. From that tower that is still preserved there is a small viewpoint to the square.


As museums we have the house of Cervantes that tells of its relationship with the town and the archaeological museum of Vélez Málaga, also on an old mansion. This museum is highly recommended as it is free to enter because it gives you a lot of information about the history of the city. It is a 16th century manor house that is linked to different historical events in the history of the city. In the first place, and according to popular tradition, D. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra stayed in 1594, during his stay in the town when he was state collector for the Great Armada of Felipe II; Secondly, in the 17th century, Fray Alonso de Santo Tomás, the bishop of Málaga, supposedly the illegitimate son of King Felipe IV, was born here.

Finally, it is well worth going up to the alcazaba both to have a view of the entire city and to visit the church of María Encarnación where the museum of Holy Week. I liked this museum a lot for being very careful and for being able to see the church inside and it can be seen in the following photograph. This church was originally a mosque and you can see a lot in the outlines of the walls and its structure. Lastly, on the way to the car, I would pass by the tourist office where the Mihrab arch of Nasrid origin is located, unique in the province of Malaga. The Koranic messages remain in the center of the albanegas of the arch which, due to their characteristics, may date from the 14th or early 15th centuries. It was found in the 1990s inside a house near the Beniel Palace and is still on display there for your visit.


Having seen Vélez and wanting to see the inland towns with the aim of reaching the A92, I will stop at Alhama de Granada.

This town is quite high, 895 meters and immediately if you come from the coast you notice everything colder.
It is known for its Arab thermal baths that are also built on top of some Roman baths. Al-Hama means bath in Arabic.


As soon as I arrived here I would eat at a good restaurant, El Raya. The house specialty is choto, stewed kid. The villa's castle is quite ugly, being empty inside and in private hands.
The characteristic image of the town is that of the convent of El Carmen or that of the slope that goes up to the church of La Encarnación . The church of the convent is in the Renaissance and Baroque style, its chapels were the burial place of the families of the Alhama aristocracy, whose coats of arms are shown in its arches.
The church is organized according to a Latin cross plan, with side chapels, a chapel at the head and a choir at the foot. Its entire interior space is covered with a pair and knuckle armor with steel braces, a dome on pendentives in the transept and a semicircular vault over the chapels.
The main altar lacks an altarpiece, although there are remains of a stone mantle that originally framed it. Behind the altar there is a dressing room, which appears decorated with a baroque style similar to that of the Sacristy of Granada.


In the heart of the historic center we find this imposing Gothic temple, the Church of the Encarnación, one of the best places to see in Alhama de Granada. It was built between the 15th and 16th centuries, on the remains of the old main mosque. This church is shown in one of the top images.

Apart from these buildings and the medieval beauty of its streets, we have the house of the inquisition that would be built in the 15th century as the headquarters of the Regional Court of the Inquisition. Its beautiful façade mixes late Gothic and Renaissance styles. In addition, it is located on Baja Iglesia Street, considered the most beautiful in Alhama de Granada and the old jail that today is the interpretation center of the town that was built at the end of from the 15th century reusing an old Arab building. It was very small, so it was enlarged a century later. Lastly, I would see the church of Las Angustias, a church in ruins that leaves a lot to the imagination. It was one of the major victims of various historical events, such as the confiscation, the arrival of Napoleonic troops in the area, the Christmas earthquake of 1884, the Civil War, etc. Only some parts remain standing, such as its dome;



Continuing my way along the A92 I will arrive at Guadix, one of the oldest cities in Andalusia, already being important in the Iberian era in the 6th century BC. It has heritage from all periods since Roman times, with the remains of a Roman theater recently and which has been added to the list of Cultural Interest Property (BIC) in 2016, passing through the remains of the Arab citadel until reaching the formidable cathedral. It is for this reason a city that has great historical importance and that is the episcopal seat of the area, along with Baza.
In the place where the current cathedral stands, there was a previous Hispano-Visigothic church in the 10th century, a diocesan seat created by San Torcuato in the 1st century, so it is likely that Guadix was one of the first episcopal seats in Spain.
The city's largest mosque was installed in this church, in times of Muslim domination. After the reconquest of the city in 1489, the episcopal seat was reestablished, called the Church of Santa María de la Encarnación, which, located in the same mosque, became a cathedral by bull of Pope Innocent VIII, carrying out some expansion works in it directed by Pedro de Morales.


Apart from the cathedral, numerous buildings in the city attract attention. One is the Villalegre palace whose patio is shown below. It is a stately palace with a beautiful interior patio surrounded by columns with semicircular arches; Also noteworthy is its south façade, flanked by towers with arcades typical of the city's Mudejar architecture. The street that goes up from the cathedral is very curious with a curved staircase flanked by Renaissance-style buildings.
Also make mention of the Royal hospital that I did not visit since the entrance fee seemed somewhat expensive to me. It is a three-story building of religious foundation and that housed a maternity hospital until the end of the 20th century that is currently shown to the visitor as a cultural center with a permanent exhibition related to the hospitals of yesteryear. Only the ground floor can be visited, where the attire of the Bishop of Guadix was exhibited, who was in charge of placing the figure of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on top of the bell tower of the Cathedral.

Another of the pillars of Guadix is the church of Santiago. This church has a very well-kept Mudejar ceiling and a very elegant Baroque altarpiece. It reminds me a lot of the church of San Francisco de Cáceres, due to the white color and the shape of its tower, although the one in Cáceres has two towers. It also appears to have originally been a mosque in plan.

Another church to see is Las Angustias.
Very close to the cathedral is the main square and the town hall, an architectural jewel full of coats of arms with double-headed eagles. The construction of the square meant a notable change with respect to the urban plan of the city, adapting itself to a truly Renaissance medieval city and focusing all power and politics in the same area. Its first construction dates from the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th, although there are no remains of this first construction, since, after the civil war, a large part of the square and the balcony of the corregidores were destroyed.


Walking at night you would find Roman Theatre, the most important vestige of the city discovered not many years ago. It was preserved underground thanks to a mud flood that occurred in Arab times. The rest would be used for the construction of other buildings. Then I would leave for my hotel in Baza.

Day 9, from Baza to Lorca, Murcia (CLICK to continue)

March 5, 2022