History of Capileira
According to notes by the researcher Henríquez de Jorquera, the origin of Capileira dates from the Gothic period. Antonio Nevot Robles, a Capileira scholar, corroborated this, as the area's place names have a Latin origin. He derived the word 'Capileira' from the Latin 'capillaris-e' (meaning 'hair' or 'head'), referring to the highest point of the Barranco. Capileira is also the closest town to the high peaks of the Sierra Nevada, so it could be said that it is the gateway to the Sierra Nevada on its southern side. Due to Capileira’s remote location, Moorish rule arrived relatively late. In the early sixteenth century, the Catholic Monarchs ordered the construction of the village church, the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza, on the site of a former mosque.