by
John Gill...
This
small town of barely 5,000 inhabitants north-west of Antequera is
probably most famous for its cadaverous celebrity El
Tempranillo, the legendary 19th century bandit born in nearby
Jauja and buried in Alameda's Iglesía de la Purísima
Concepción church. The so-called Principe de la Sierra, prince
of the mountains, is the most colourful of Andalucía's many
bandit heroes.
Alameda
was first settled as a town by the Phoenicians, but there is archaeological
evidence of habitation dating back to Paleolithic and Neolithic
times, probably 2-2,500 BCE. Vestiges of these settlements can be
seen at the Necrópolis Calcolítica just outside the
town, a system of over twenty interconnected burial pits or ossuaries,
some a metre wide.
Alameda was also an important settlement in Roman
times, with the remains of a Roman villa and baths and a wealth
of artefacts discovered suggesting a major trade and military base
at the site in the first century BC. The remains of the baths are
maintained in a 3000 square metre enclosure in Calle Enmedio, and
have been dated to between the first and third centuries AC. The
site is now a preserved national monument.
Like much of the region, it was overrun by Visigoth
invaders and later by Moorish settlers in the eighth century. The
Catholic reconquistadores took the town in 1240, relatively early
in the Reconquest, and when the new Spanish order was established
the town, then a small hamlet, was placed under the control of the
Marqués of Estepa, to the north-west of the town. The region
itself was under the rule of the Order of Santiago - the Knights
of St James - until 1559, a time when Alameda had barely thirty
inhabitants. The town grew during the 17th century, thanks to its
specialisation in esparto grass, wood and carpentry (one version
of the origin of its name is from a poplar grove), and an influx
of settlers from Estepa
itself.
In
1883 Alameda was incorporated into the newly created province of
Málaga, under the control of Archidona. This was an unpopular
and confusing decision in a village that was still under the orders
of both the bishop of Estepa and the archbishop of Seville. The
town was only placed under the orders of the archbishop of Málaga
as late as 1959.
The baroque Iglesía de la Purísima
Concepción was built in 1696, the church tower being
a later addition, along with the remarkable rococo altar piece at
the head of the nave. The church was actually expanded sideways
in 1779 with two new aisles, supported by eight massive pillars,
to accommodate the town's burgeoning new population. The
tomb of El Tempranillo can be seen in the church's interior
patio.
The main focus of Alameda is the central Fuente
de la Placeta, built from delicate local stone at the time
of King Carlos III, in the Plaza de España.
Until recent decades it was still the main source of fresh water
for the town, and the sizeable width of the fountain's base, built
perhaps deliberately, made it impossible to fill a large pitcher
without leaning over and falling into the fountain. Townsfolk developed
a trick of putting the pitcher on the ground and filling it using
a hollow cane reed. The nearby Plaza de la Constitution is a pleasant
tree-lined square with benches where townspeople take their evening
paseo, walk.
Just outside town, the Mirador de la Camorra
offers excellent views over the town and surrounding landscape,
some 250 metres higher than Alameda's 430 metres above sea level.
There's an easy path to the top. A couple of kilometres west of
town is the Laguna de la Ratosa, like the nearby
Fuente de Piedra a place to find flamingos and
other migrating birds and an abundance of other wildlife.
Alameda's key festivals are its February Candelaria
procession, the three-day celebrations for its patron saint,
San Isidro Labrador, on 15-18 March, and the August
feria, held in the first week of the month. The town still specialises
in its work with esparto grass, wood and carpentry, in particular
silleria, the production of wood seats.
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