Vertebrates are less easy to spot but are also present. Along with the grazing goats, sheep, cattle and Iberian pigs you may see squirrels, hares, rabbits, deer, wild boar, otters and mongoose. Ibex (Capra pyrenaica hispánica) are making a rapid comeback in many of the regions described here, especially so in the Sierra de Tejeda and on the southern flank of the Sierra de Ojén. And on the Gibraltar walk you’ll certainly have close encounters with Barbary apes as you follow the high ridgeline from O’Hara’s Battery.
Close encounter of the bovine kind in the Breña forest (Costa de la Luz, Walk 4)
Andalucía has a long roll call of reptiles. Of its many species of snakes just one is poisonous, the Lataste’s viper, which is rarely seen in the coastal areas. Iberian and wall lizards are common, as are chameleons, while the much larger ocellated lizard can often be seen near the coast and especially along the ramblas (dry river beds) of Cabo de Gata.
Appendix E (Further reading) includes details of guidebooks that will help you to identify the plants and wildlife of Andalucía.
Andalucía over the years
Anyone who’s travelled to other parts of the Iberian Peninsula will be aware of the marked differences between the regions of Spain and its peoples. If Franco sought to impose a centralist and authoritarian system of government on his people, the New Spain, ushered in with his departure and the advent of liberal democracy, actively celebrates the country’s diverse, multilingual and multi-faceted culture.
But if Spain is diferente, as the marketing campaigns of the 90s and noughties would have us believe, then Andalucía is even more so. It is, of course, about much more than the stereotypical images of flamenco, fiestas, castanets, flounced dresses, sherry and bullfighting: any attempt to define what constitutes the Andaluz character must probe far deeper. But what very quickly becomes apparent on any visit to the region is that this is a place of ebullience, joie de vivre, easy conversation and generous gestures. The typical Andalusian’s first loves are family, friends and his or her patria chica (homeland), and it’s rare to meet one that isn’t happy to share it all with outsiders.
What goes to make such openness of character is inextricably linked to the region’s history and its geographical position at the extreme south of Europe, looking east to Europe, west to the Atlantic and with just a short stretch of water separating its southernmost tip from Africa. This is a land at the crossroads between two continents, at the same time part of one of the richest spheres of trade the world has ever known: the Mediterranean Basin. Visitors from faraway places are nothing new!
Roman ruins on the Atlantic Coast near Tarifa
A thousand years before Christ, the minerals and rich agricultural lands of Andalucía had already attracted the interest of the Phoenicians, who established trading posts in Málaga and Cádiz. But it was under the Romans, who ruled Spain from the 3rd century BC to the 5th century AD, that the region began to take on its present-day character. They established copper and silver mines, planted olives and vines, cleared land for agriculture and built towns, roads, aqueducts, bridges, theatres and baths while imposing their native language and customs. Incursions by Vandals and then Visigoths ended their rule, but its legacy was to be both rich and enduring.
The arrival of the Moors
If Rome laid the foundations of Andalusian society in its broadest sense, they were shallow in comparison to those that would be bequeathed in the wake of the expeditionary force that sailed across the Strait in 711 under the Moorish commander Tariq.
After the death of the Prophet, Islam had spread rapidly through the Middle East and across the north of Africa, and the time was ripe for taking it into Europe. Landing close to Gibraltar, Tariq’s army decisively defeated the ruling Visigoths in their first encounter. What had been little more than a loose confederation of tribes, deprived of their ruler, offered little resistance to the advance of Islam across Spain. It was only when Charles Martel defeated the Moorish army close to the banks of the Loire in 732 that the tide began to turn and the Moors looked to consolidate their conquests rather than venture deeper into Europe.
A first great capital was established at Toledo, and it became clear that the Moors had no plans to leave in a hurry: Andalucía was to become part of an Islamic state for almost eight centuries.
The cathedral of Santa Maria in Ronda which has an Arab minaret as its bell tower
Moorish Spain’s Golden Age took hold in the 8th century, when Jews, Christians and Moors established a modus vivendi the likes of which has rarely been replicated, and which yielded one of the richest artistic periods Europe has known. Philosophers, musicians, poets, mathematicians and astronomers from all three religions helped establish Córdoba as a centre for learning second to no other in the West, at the centre of a trading network that stretched from Africa to the Middle East and through Spain to northern Europe.
However, the Moorish Kingdom was always under threat, and the Reconquest – a process that was to last more than 800 years – gradually gained momentum as the Christian kingdoms of central and northern Spain became more unified. Córdoba fell in 1031, Sevilla in 1248, and the great Caliphate splintered into a number of smaller taifa kingdoms.
The Moors clung on for another 250 years, but the settlements along la frontera fell in the early 1480s, Ronda in 1485, Málaga and Vélez in 1487, and finally Granada in 1492. The whole of Spain was once again under Christian rule.
Spain’s Golden Age
If ever anybody was in the right place at the right time – that’s to say in the Christian camp at Santa Fe when Granada capitulated – it was the Genoese adventurer Cristóbal Colon, aka Christopher Columbus. His petition to the Catholic monarchs for funding for an expedition to sail west in order to reach the East fell on fertile soil.
The discovery of America, and along with it the fabulous riches that would make their way back to a Spain newly united under Habsburg rule, was to usher in Spain’s Siglo de Oro or Golden Age. Spain’s Empire would soon stretch from the Caribbean through Central and South America and on to the Philippines; riches flowed back from the colonies at a time when Sevilla and Cádiz numbered among the wealthiest cities in Europe. The most obvious manifestation of this wealth, and nowhere more so than in Andalucía, were the palaces, churches, monasteries and convents that were built during this period: never again would the country see such generous patronage of the Arts.
However, by the end of the 16th century Spain’s position at the centre of the world stage was under threat. A series of wars in Europe depleted Spain’s credibility as well as the state coffers: by the late 17th century Spanish power was in free fall. It remained a spent force into the 19th century, and yet further violent conflict in the early 20th century led to General Francisco Franco (‘El Caudillo’) sweeping into power in 1936.
Franco’s crusade
Franco’s ‘crusade’ to re-establish the traditional order in Spain – the Spanish Civil War – lasted three years, during which an estimated 500,000 Spaniards lost their lives. The eventual victory of the Nationalists in 1939 led to Franco’s consolidation and centralisation of power and the establishment of an authoritarian state that remained until his death in 1975.
A monument to victims of the Civil War close to Ronda
Franco had hoped that King Juan Carlos, who he’d appointed as his successor prior to his death, would continue to govern much in his image; but the young king knew which way the tide was running and immediately began to facilitate the creation of a new constitution for Spain and, along with it, parliamentary democracy. Andalucía, as was the case for several