Villages in harmony with the environment

The Moorish influences on the architecture of Las Alpujarras villages are very evident. It’s not unlike that of the villages and towns of North Africa, namely Morocco and Tunisia. It’s a perfect harmony between architecture and nature. The houses, always south-facing to take advantage or the light and the heat of the sun, hug the contours of the mountainside, as do the farmsteads dotted on the hillsides and the crops grown on terraces.

The traditional Alpujarra building methods and architecture have been best preserved in the mountain villages, with their narrow streets winding between houses built to look like large blocks placed one above the other. A mosaic that is a cubist artist’s dream.

Many of these houses have been divided between inheritors thus the many cases of flying freeholds. Many have what is called Tinaos, or little passages that allow the narrow streets to pass below them, an authentic throwback to La Alpujarra’s Islamic past. Almost all villages have a square, sometimes a mere widening of the street where one usually finds the church, the bar and, in the case of the larger villages, any other commercial enterprise.

Possibly by chance rather than by design, one can say that a truly traditional Alpujarra house is a faithful reflection of the area’s soul. Because of the geographical inaccessibility of this region and its difficult access, local materials were used for building: straw, mud, wood (often chestnut because of its resistance to wood-worm and other wood-eating insects), stone, slate and launa (crushed slate) on the roofs for insulation. The house is almost always white-washed. It is above all a simple, practical dwelling austerely decorated that harmonizes perfectly with its surroundings.

As the norm in Las Alpujarras, a village house has two floors; the lower floor was the stable or cuadra for animals and the upper floor the family. Bedrooms were added hiclety-picklety as the family grew, though more often than not the many children slept in one room, the parents and the newborn in the other. The hearth of the house was the kitchen with its fireplace where women cooked the meals.

The Arabic influences don’t just stop at the architecture of the towns and the villages; it also extends to the administrative divisions or boroughs that group together various settlements. These are descended from the Nasarid Tahas and sometimes still bear the name, such as La Taha of Pitres that includes Fereirola, Mecina, Mecinilla, Fondales, Atalbeitar, and Portugos. Some like to include Busquístar amongst them.

List of Villages in Las Alpujarras

Villages full of charm

This unique architectural heritage can be found in almost all the villages of Las Alpujarras. In places like the Barrio Hondillo in Lanjarón’s, Soportújar, Busquístar, the Upper Quarter of Juvíles, Mecina Bombarón, Mairena, the Lower Quarter of Cádiar, it is very evident.
The Barranco de Poqueira, with its three boroughs, Pampaneira, Bubión y Capileira has been declared a Site of Historical and Artistic Interest, proof of the value of these villages’ heritage and the outstanding beauty of the countryside surrounding them.