Alhaurín el Grande is a town located in the

province of Málaga The province of Málaga ( es, Provincia de Málaga ) is located in Andalusia, Spain. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south and by the provinces of Cádiz to the west, Seville to the northwest, Córdoba to the north, and Granada to ...

in the

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a "historical nationality". The ...

in southern

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

. It covers an area of 73.1 km² extending from the northern slope of the Sierra de Mijas and the plain of the

Guadalhorce river The Guadalhorce (from Arabic وَادِي ('' wādī''), "river" + Latin ''forfex'', "scissors") is the principal river of the Province of Málaga in southern Spain. Its source is in the Sierra de Alhama in the Province of Granada, from which i ...

, where alternate crops of citrus and other fruit trees orchards are found. The population reaches 23,675 inhabitants, according to 2010 data. The origin of the name was given by the

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

, who called it "Alhaurin", where the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being bot ...

added "el Grande" to distinguish it from the neighboring town of Alhaurín de la Torre after the conquest of both sites in 1485. It is situated between the river Fahala and the stream of Blas González. The coast is close by and there is a network of roads to get there. There is a road to

Málaga Airport Málaga Airport , officially Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport ( es, Aeropuerto de Málaga-Costa del Sol) since June 2011, is the fourth busiest airport in Spain after Madrid–Barajas, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. It is significant for Sp ...

and

Torremolinos Torremolinos () is a municipality in Andalusia, southern Spain, west of Málaga. A poor fishing village before the growth in tourism began in the late 1950s, Torremolinos was the first of the Costa del Sol resorts to be developed and is still th ...

, which takes about 30 minutes by car. A new road was built in 2010 connecting the town with

Fuengirola Fuengirola (), in ancient times known as Suel and then Suhayl, is a large town and municipality on the Costa del Sol in the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It is located on the central coast of the p ...

and the beach which is only 20 minutes drive. There is also another new road to

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the reg ...

, to the southwest with Mijas just along a winding road round the mountain. From Alhaurín there is a view over the "

Hoya de Málaga Hoya may refer to: Places *Hoya, Germany, a city in Lower Saxony, Germany *County of Hoya, a former state in present Germany * Hoya, Tokyo, now incorporated within Nishi-tokyo, Tokyo, Japan * Hoya, Hpruso, a place in Hpruso Township, Kayah, Myanmar ...

", Málaga's vale, full of lemon trees and other fruit trees. Villafranco del Guadalhorce is a village within Alhaurín el Grande's municipal term. It was founded by colonist families in the 1950s and subsidized by the

Instituto Nacional de Colonización The Instituto Nacional de Colonización y Desarrollo Rural, en, National Institute of Rural Development and Colonization, was the administrative entity that was established by the Spanish State in October 1939, shortly after the end of the Spani ...

of the Spanish government.

Geography

Alhaurin el Grande is located on the north side of the Sierra de Mijas at a height of 326 meters above sea level, with a benign climate of mild winters and hot summers and more than two thirds of the days per year have sunshine. It is 29 km from

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most po ...

and 18 km from

. Its inhabitants are known as ''alhaurinos'' or ''laurinos''. It is the thirteenth largest city in the entire province of Málaga in population, second only to coastal municipalities, the cities of

Ronda Ronda () is a town in the Spanish province of Málaga. It is located about west of the city of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its population is about 35,000. Ronda is known for its cliff-side location and a deep chasm ...

and

Antequera Antequera () is a city and municipality in the Comarca de Antequera, province of Málaga, part of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is known as "the heart of Andalusia" (''el corazón de Andalucía'') because of its central loca ...

and nearby Alhaurin de la Torre (2009). It has a population around 25,000, but there is a large presence of foreigners settled in the town, estimated to represent nearly 5% of the total population. It also contains the neighborhoods of Chorro or San. Anton, el Bajondillo, San Isidro or Camino de Coin, la Huerta or el Barrio del Alemán, la Fama or the neighborhood of Palustre, plus several developments such as La Paca, La Chíchara, El Cigarral or Sierra Gorda and the hamlet of Villafranco del Guadalhorce.

History

In the municipality traces of different civilizations have been found, from the oldest to abundant Roman and Moorish remains. The municipality of Alhaurín el Grande has seen the history of

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their his ...

ns, Greeks, Romans,

Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is k ...

and Arabs that have settled nearby. In the forested areas southeast of Alhaurín el Grande, there are traces of

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

occupation, witnesses to the long history of human habitation of the area. These traces were found at Las Huertas Altas and near La Casa Forestal. Subsequently, the agricultural growth of the place took a big leap in quality with the arrival of the Greeks, who left their methods of cultivating the land, olive trees and prune grafted vines. By the time the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

arrived, the tiny Iberian settlement in the Sierra de Mijas was already well established, but if it had a name the Romans chose not to keep it. Instead they gave it one of their own. The village became Lauro Nova. It was a spot apparently blessed by the gods: fertile,

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (23.5° to 66.5° N/S of Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ranges throughout ...

, and surrounded by hills riddled with valuable mineral deposits. Roman villas popped up around the centre of the village and the hills are still dotted with their remains. There is also evidence of the existence of different settlements in various parts of the term municipal of Alhaurin el Grande, such as: Dehesa Baja Camino de Coín o la Alquería during the Roman period. The most important are those of the Fuente del Sol and Huerta del Niño, named after a burial with a tombstone of a young Roman having been discovered. Numerous Roman remains and objects such as columns, ceramics and coins have been found. It was a golden age which became a little tarnished during the time of the

. The town was in no danger of disappearing, but its development was exceedingly slow. It was not until the Moors took it on and built it a fortress on a hilltop called Torres de Fahala that it began to move again. The

Moors The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinc ...

also gave it a new name, Alhaurín, meaning "Garden of

Allah Allah (; ar, الله, translit=Allāh, ) is the common Arabic word for God. In the English language, the word generally refers to God in Islam. The word is thought to be derived by contraction from '' al- ilāh'', which means "the god", a ...

". Like the Romans before them, they linked the township to a second to which they gave the same name, the two now being known as Alhaurín ''el Grande'' and Alhaurín ''de la Torre''. To the Romans they had been Lauro Nova and Lauro Vetus. The

fort A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

was destroyed in the destructive zeal of the

Reconquista The ' ( Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the N ...

, but at least the village survived. In the following centuries the town suffered from invasions, epidemics of plague, and an earthquake in 1680. During the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...

of 1808–14 it was occupied for four years by French troops and suffered considerable bombardment. Recently, there have been large-scale building projects, which are being investigated for corrupt practices.

Demography

Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.7,0.9) ImageSize = width:580 height:300 PlotArea = left: 60 bottom: 30 top: 20 right: 20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:24000 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = late ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:2000 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:100 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo BarData= bar: 1877 text: 1877 bar: 1887 text: 1887 bar: 1900 text: 1900 bar: 1910 text: 1910 bar: 1920 text: 1920 bar: 1930 text: 1930 bar: 1940 text: 1940 bar: 1950 text: 1950 bar: 1960 text: 1960 bar: 1970 text: 1970 bar: 1980 text: 1980 bar: 1990 text: 1990 bar: 2000 text: 2000 bar: 2010 text: 2010 PlotData= color:barra width:20 align:center bar: 1877 from:7445 till: 0 bar: 1887 from:8266 till: 0 bar: 1900 from:8700 till: 0 bar: 1910 from:9205 till: 0 bar: 1920 from:10821 till: 0 bar: 1930 from:10431 till: 0 bar: 1940 from:10853 till: 0 bar: 1950 from:11710 till: 0 bar: 1960 from:11686 till: 0 bar: 1970 from:11937 till: 0 bar: 1980 from:14279 till: 0 bar: 1990 from:17257 till: 0 bar: 2000 from:17764 till: 0 bar: 2010 from:23164 till: 0 PlotData= bar: 1877 at:7445 fontsize:S text:7.445 shift:(0,5) bar: 1887 at:8266 fontsize:S text:8.266 shift:(0,5) bar: 1900 at:8700 fontsize:S text:8.700 shift:(0,5) bar: 1910 at:9205 fontsize:S text:9.205 shift:(0,5) bar: 1920 at:10821 fontsize:S text:10.821 shift:(0,5) bar: 1930 at:10431 fontsize:S text:10.431 shift:(0,5) bar: 1940 at:10853 fontsize:S text:10.853 shift:(0,5) bar: 1950 at:11710 fontsize:S text:11.710 shift:(0,5) bar: 1960 at:11686 fontsize:S text:11.686 shift:(0,5) bar: 1970 at:11937 fontsize:S text:11.937 shift:(0,5) bar: 1980 at:14279 fontsize:S text:14.279 shift:(0,5) bar: 1990 at:17257 fontsize:S text:17.257 shift:(0,5) bar: 2000 at:17764 fontsize:S text:17.764 shift:(0,5) bar: 2010 at:23164 fontsize:S text:23.164 shift:(0,5) Fro
INE Archiv
/small>

Monuments and places of interest

* Arco árabe del Cobertizo * Columnas romanas de la Plaza de Ayuntamiento * Iglesia de la Encarnación (Alhaurín el Grande), Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación * Ermita de San Sebastián * Ermita de la Santa Vera Cruz * Ermita del Cristo de las Agonías * Ermita de San Antón * Ruinas de la Fortaleza de Fahala o Castillo de la Reina * Torre vigia de Urique * Fuente Lucena o de los Doce Caños * Molino de la Paca * Molino morisco de los Corchos y de Maroto o Galiano * Porton de San Rafael * Casa Consistorial, Cripta del antiguo convento franciscano * Casa-Hermandad Museo de la Hermandad de NUestro Padre Jesús Nazareno * Casa-Hermandad Museo de la Cofradía de la Santa Vera Cruz * Museo del Pan, El Colmenero de Alhaurín * Biblioteca Municipal "Ildefonso Marzo" * Teatro Antonio Gala * Parque La Libertad

Main sights

Some traces of the village's ancient past have survived. There is the 12th Century

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or s ...

archway, the ''Arcos de Cobertizo''. In the small

plaza A town square (or square, plaza, public square, city square, urban square, or ''piazza'') is an open public space, commonly found in the heart of a traditional town but not necessarily a true geometric square, used for community gatherings. ...

in front of the town hall, the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, are three Roman columns which were discovered close by at Fuente del Sol.

Metropolitan Bus

Malaga Metropolitan Transport Consortium's (Consorcio de Tranpsporte Metropolitano del Área de Málaga) http://www.ctmam.es Malaga Metropolitan Transport Consortium buses are the main form of transport around the city of Málaga and the villages of the Metropolitan Area.

Notable people

Antonio Tejero Antonio Tejero Molina (born 30 April 1932) is a Spanish former Lieutenant Colonel of the Guardia Civil, and the most prominent figure in the failed coup d'état against the newly democratic Spanish government on 23 February 1981. Career Tejer ...

, Spanish former Lieutenant Colonel of the Guardia Civil, and the most prominent figure in the failed 1981 Spanish coup d'état attempt *

Gerald Brenan Edward FitzGerald "Gerald" Brenan, CBE, MC (7 April 1894 – 19 January 1987) was a British writer and hispanist who spent much of his life in Spain. Brenan is best known for ''The Spanish Labyrinth'', a historical work on the background t ...

, a British writer and hispanist who spent much of his life in Spain and died in Alhaurin el Grande.

References

External links

Alhaurín el Grande City Council Official Website

Malaga Metropolitan Transport Consortium WebsiteEconomic Study of Spain – Alhaurín el Grande

St Anthonys College

Tourist website for Alhaurin el Grande
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alhaurin el Grande Municipalities in the Province of Málaga