Places to go

Casares


Casares

Casares

The white village of Casares is a lovely example of a country life-style still steeped in tradition. Casares is a scenic mountain village eight miles inland from the coast between the Ronda highland, the Costa del Sol, and the Campo de Gibraltar; an ideal centre from which to explore remarkable Andalucia. You will enjoy clear mountain air yet find quality beaches only fifteen minutes away. There are a good selection of bars and restaurants offering local fare as well as some very typical Spanish village shops which serve the local community well. The annual ferias, which take place on the first week-end in August and around the 15th.September, are riotous affairs with music and dancing in the street all night long.

Casares forms an important part in the catalogue of white villages of Málaga, set on the mountain, in this case, over two hills and their corresponding valley. Its urban form of Arabic origin is an important attraction for the tourism which saturates the neighbouring Costa del Sol. One can have an idea of the beauty of this village as it was declared to be an Historical-Artistical Complex in 1978.

Casares

In the highest part of the town there are three outstanding architectural elements: the ruins of its Arabic fort, the cemetery, and the parish church of La Encarnación, from the 16th century and built with three naves and corresponding vaults which sank. It is in the process of being restored and is therefore closed to worship. In its place is the convent of Capuchinos, from the 16th century, with a Latin cross base and one nave covered with a vault and dome over the transept. The other church in Casares is the 16th century San Sebastian. There is also the convent of Santa Catalina from the 16th century, and as a civil construction is the 18th century fountain in the square.

Casares

Further west, the sierra is converted into an observation point of limestone in Crestellina to watch the entrance to the Ronda valley of Genal from its peak. There, amid gorges and ridges, lives a colony of tawny vultures of the peninsular. These birds with almost two metre wingspans, cross the Casares’ skies daily, from Crestellina to Utrera, adding another attractiveness to the area with their majestic flight. La Utrera is a small sierra crowned by the karstic forms, typical of the Torcal of Antequera, although in smaller dimensions, situated to the south of the municipality; at the foot of the deep fissure which divides it in two (Canuto de la Utrera) there is an almost unknown spot which history refers to the Roman baths of La Hedionda.

Casares

Other places of notable archaeological and ecological interest are the shelters of Paredones, the caves of Ballesteros, Hediondas (neolithic necropolis), Crestellina and the Gran Duque; the chasms of the Huesos and Pito Díaz, and on the coast corresponding to this municipality, the Torre de la Sal, which dates from the 16th century. From the contemporary epoch it is worth mentioning, for its historical significance, the natal house of Blas Infante, the Andalucian Nationalist leader who was born here on July 5th 1885 and executed by Franco’s own rebels at the start of the civil war. Off the square in Calle Carrera his birth house has been turned into a museum and tourist office.Casares

Casares Photo Gallery



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