The name of the Alpujarra begins with "Al", and that usually reveals an Arab origin. Although philologists do not fully agree on this fact, the truth is that the Muslim heritage in this region goes far beyond place-names. To discover it, all you have to do is set foot in Bubión, a stunning village located in the Barranco de Poqueira.
read more
The name of the Alpujarra begins with "Al", and that usually reveals an Arab origin. Although philologists do not fully agree on this fact, the truth is that the Muslim heritage in this region goes far beyond place-names. To discover it, all you have to do is set foot in Bubión, a stunning village located in the Barranco de Poqueira.
The architecture and the layout of the streets with its twists and turns have that unmistakably Arab flavour, even though five long centuries have passed since the region returned to Christian hands. Because Granada was the last territory to be reconquered and therefore the one with the most extended and most intense Islamic past.
For the Moriscos, that is, the Muslims who stayed here and accepted the invitation to convert to Christianity, life was not easy. Already in the time of Philip II, things got really ugly. They were forbidden any demonstration of their customs, their language, their traditions and even their clothes, in an attempt to erase all traces of that culture in Spanish territory.
But the shot backfired because the response to such measures was a rebellion. The so-called Rebellion of the Moriscos, of which this area turned out to be the birthplace and the setting. The church of Bubión was burned down during those terrible confrontations and what you see today, of course, is a later reconstruction.
But above the monuments, the most characteristic of the region is the "terraos and the tinaos." You will see that the houses do not have roofs, but flat covers made with a clay known as launa. Well, those are the "terraos," and it is not clear if they started to be created because there was a shortage of materials here to make tiles, or to prevent snow from falling in front of the houses. And we must not forget that we are on the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
The "tinaos," on the other hand, are passageways that communicate one alley with another and form curious portals, with a room on top, and they are a little bit between public and private space.
Flower-filled balconies, fountains and that taste for ornaments that add so much beauty to the whitewashed streets are also abundant. And then there are the views, of course. From Bubión's 1,300 metres of altitude, you can see both the peaks of the Sierra Nevada and the sea on a clear day.
