All about Andalucia, Spain
Look at the map of the Iberian peninsula and you’ll see the region of Andalucia at the bottom, its most southerly tip reaching past Gibraltar to almost reach the northern tip of North Africa, a mere 20km or so across the Strait of Gibraltar. This peculiar geography, bordering one of the world’s most strategically important shipping lanes, and close to an historically powerful and often threatening neighbour has had a huge part in shaping the nature and culture of this most southerly Spanish region - the many Moorish buildings and monuments of Andalucia make this a place where Europe and Africa unarguably collide. But Andalucia, like every region, is defined as much by its geography, topography and weather.
This is a relatively small region, yet it has an extensive coastline, great beaches, mountainous sierra and cosmopolitan cities - it’s a diverse region, at times dazzlingly so. The eight provinces of Andalucia take their names from their capitals, and for the visitor or immigrant to Andalucia there isn’t a dud amongst them. Sevilla is the biggest city, a bustling and lively place, with a mix of Christian and Moorish monuments, its lovely ‘barrios’ (quarters of the city), great museums and stunning Easter festivals (check out the April ‘feria’ too). Sevilla is the setting for ‘Carmen’ and the passion and fire of southern Spain is typified by the town.
Next in size is Granada, home to the Alhambra Palace - the most famous of the buildings left by the Moors, but by no means the only one. Cordoba has the Mezquita, a former mosque, while Malaga is a lot more than a seaside playground in the sun. Check out Malaga’s Moorish fort, plus a fine museum rich with paintings by Picasso - a scion of the city. Cadiz has a less chic reputation - this is a bustling working town, a thriving port and the seafood capital of Andalucia. Many people love atmospheric Cadiz for just this reason, and it offers superb value and authenticity to incomers.
And don’t overlook the smaller provincial capitals of Almeria, Jaen and Huelva, or the little gems of Baeza, Ubeda, Ronda and the Pueblos Blancos (or ‘white towns’) in the west of the region. These are lovely little hill villages, and are surrounded by some beautiful countryside. Apropos of which, there is a wealth of natural beauty - to the west of Malaga you have the coastline of the Costa del Sol of course, famed as a tourist trap but with many beautiful and unspoiled miles of seafront. Should you want to swim with the crowds there are resorts such as Torremolinos, which has been redeveloped yet again since its sixties and seventies heyday, and now boasts new theme parks and leisure facilities. But you never have to go far to escape the crowds - explore the Costa de la Luz to the west, and superb resorts such as Conil de la Frontera and Tarifa. The Costa Tropical has Nerja and Almunecar, while the Costa Almeria has Mojacar, Agua Amarga and San Jose.
Inland there are delights such as the Coto Donana National Park (Europe’s largest wildlife sanctuary). See too the Sierra Nevada National Park, with snowy mountains just 20 miles or so from the sunsoaked beaches. Nearby are the Apujarras valleys, peppered with Moorish mountain villages and to the east of the region we even have desert - Almeria has been used as a filmset for spaghetti (or should that be paella) westerns in the past, and is an enduringly popular location for moviemakers. There are the forest-clad hills of the Sierra de Morena and Sierra de Cazorla, and throughout, little villages and towns, some of them dating back to much grander pasts during the Moorish era, and with festivals and traditional fairs to enjoy.
