HISTORY
The oldest news we have about Cástaras comes from a text by the Almerian al-Udri (1003-1085), who mentions the yûz' Qāšturiš among a series of place names of La Alpujarra, which were part of the cora of Elvira when it belonged to the Caliphate of Córdoba.
In the Nasrid period, within the Kingdom of Granada, Cástaras belonged to the Taha of Juviles, and continued to be so, after the Reconquista, until the Rebellion of the Moriscos.
During the repopulation process that began in 1571,4 the Council of Cástaras and Nieles was established within the Kingdom of Granada and the Alpuxarras district, uniting the two towns and their associated territories under the jurisdiction of ordinary district Mayors dependent on the Mayor of Ugíjar, the district’s capital.
After the reforms of 1833 and 1834, the town was integrated into the province of Granada, and in the judicial district of Albuñol, on which it depended until the modification of the judicial demarcation of 1965, by which it was assigned to the judicial district of Órgiva, to which it still belongs.
Between 1863 and 1869, at the request of numerous residents of Nieles, two successive files were processed to separate from the municipality of Cástaras. In both cases the claim was rejected by the Government following recommendations from the Council of State.
Cástaras has seen its population drastically reduced due to emigration. In the 1970s, faced with the mass exodus of its inhabitants in search of work in other parts of Spain, two thirds of its houses were closed.