Visit to Bobastro

THURSDAY 1st July.


Today we decided to explore an archaeological site about two hours drive from Alhama. The drive was pleasant and Sofia did a good job in getting us there without too much hassle.

First stop was Ardales (pronounced Arr-da-les). We were impressed by the green lawn and gardens at the entrance to the village as well as the tourist information/cultural complex close to where we parked. The museum looked interesting but we were more interested in finding something to eat and learning how to get to Bobastro which according to the Lonely Planet Guide to Andalucia has the remains of a 9th century fortress set up by a kind of Andalucian Robin Hood.
We were advised by an enthusiastic guide at the information centre that if we walked up into the square we would find lots of restaurants. He also gave us a brochure about the site and said that it would be open and easy to get to.


We found a nice looking place where we thought we could have lunch, but what we thought was the restaurant turned out to be the town hall! The restaurant was off to one side – we could not see any signage as to its name, but followed the waitress through a bar, down a long corridor into a very large air conditioned restaurant. She subsequently told us that it is called the Juan Vera Restaurant. All round the walls were photos of the various sites and they all looked interesting. The town is obviously trying to build up its economy using tourism. From the little we saw it has a lot of potential and the town looked very prosperous.

We decided on the menu del dia and at her recommendation chose the soup of pumpkin, potatoes and meat. It was truly delicious and came in its own tureen. (Brian thought that very economical because it meant that they did not have to throw it away if we hadn’t eaten it all). We followed that with salted cod and coffee and then headed off to find Bobastro.

We did find it but when we got to the entrance, the guide waved us through, so we continued to drive up the mountain where we came to a dead end but with a fantastic view of Garganta del Chorro (the El Chorro Gorge). As it is only about 50 kms from Malaga, it is a popular drive into the hinterland but it is also more famous for its rock climbing. According to the guide book, the gorge is “about 4km long, as much as 400 metres deep and sometimes just 10 km wide”. Its sheer walls and rock faces are what attract climbers in Andalucia. (Not for the Smiths though!)

When we got to the dead end, we had a fantastic view and realised that we had come further than we needed to. We stopped to talk to some people who were also at the lookout. They were from Robe in South Australia – didn’t know Mike Gibson, but asked if we knew Peter and Leslie from Pomona! Took me a while to realise that we do know them, but by then the Robe ites had moved on. We asked them if they had been to Arr-da-les, but realised afterwards that we should have asked them if they had been to Ardales!


We turned around and went back to the stall where we had been waved through and discovered that the entrance to the site we wanted was on the opposite side of the road and was not visible from the road.


Paid the 3 Euro entrance fee and the Gatekeeper unlocked the gate and let us into the site. It is a very interesting one. According to the labels, Omar Ibn Hafsun got into trouble as a young man when he was in the army in Cordoba and in order to avoid being sent to jail fled to his uncle’s home in Morocco. He came back to Spain and converted to Christianity (thus becoming a Mozarab) and built the Iglesia Mozarabe around the large boulders on the site. The Church became the focus of a small town and at times it became the centre for the protection of Christian refugees fleeing the control of the Moslem controlled Cordoba, which ruled most of the settlements in Western Andalucia. Hafsun was recaptured at one stage and taken back into the Army in Cordoba where he was promoted, but he rebelled again and returned to Bobastro which is where he died. (This really appealed to Brian!)

Omar Hafsun was buried in the crypt of the Church at Bobastro but when Bobastro was finally conquered by Cordoba in 927, his remains were taken away for posthumous crucifixion outside Cordoba’s mesquite (mosque).

The site is on sloping ground and would have been a fantastic fortress because the views from it are spectacular. The labels are very clear and give a very good interpretation of the site, so we were really pleased that we went to see it. Brian thinks that it is probably even more significant than the Alhambra! I’m not sure that I agree, but I did find it very interesting.