Guía de Andalucía > Cities > Antequera

Antequera

Located only 50 kilometres from the capital of Malaga, Antequera is one of the most important towns in the province. Known as the heart of Andalusia because of its location between the provinces of Malaga, Granada, Cordoba and Seville, it’s surrounded by the mountains of El Torcal and Chimenea.

Interestingly, its 817 km2 make it one of the largest municipalities in Spain with regard to area, which is home to around 46,000 inhabitants.

The climate is generally excellent, and on average is between 35º in summer and 18º in winter.

Economically, it is currently at a peak thanks to the number of projects in creation: the AVE connection with Madrid, Cordoba and the Costa del Sol; an airport Project and an industrial estate joined to the Antequera Business Park, make the future look bright, especially in terms of job creation.

HISTORY

The first people to populate Antequera arrived between 2000-2500 BC. We have archaeologically important remains from that time, such as the dolmens at Menga, Viera and El Romeral, considered the most important dolmen remains in the country.

Later, in the Roman Era, Antikaria was the headquarters of the only Papal College of the Spanish Caesars.

During the Arabic Era it became known as Medina Antakira and after the Muslim conquest with the troops led by Abdelazis-Ben-Muza-Ben-Noseir, it achieved great military importance. From the mid-eighteenth century, the Castilian monarchs marked it as a main objective in their conquest as the first step towards conquering the Kingdom of Granada, something they tried to do several times.

After the town was eventually conquered, it became a starting point for later conquests such as Álora and Casarabonela and, as mentioned before, the kingdom of Granada.

Once conquered, this kingdom became an important population centre, but its growth really took off in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, thanks to its inter-provincial location between Malaga, Cordoba, Seville and Granada.

During the eighteenth century it went through an extraordinary stage when a large number of religious congregations settled there, building houses, chapels and churches, turning it into a cloistral city.

After this large scale epidemics led to significant population loss. Nowadays, industrial expansion means its population continues to grow.

MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF INTEREST

• Torcal de Antequera:
  You could say this is like a city in ruins which has grown from the random evolution of a geological karst process. Over the years, the rocks have emerged from the sea and taken on their curious shapes. Water is vital in this process, and there are various springs there, with that at la Villa being the most important. One of the most well known at Torcal is el Tornillo (the screw), whose name comes from its unusual shape. It has a circumference of some 25 metres.


El Torcal

• Dolmen Set:
  This is the most significant Megalithic set in Europe. The Menga Dolmen is the oldest but there are also examples at Viera and El Romeral.
• Arch of the Giants:
  An impressive Arch that opens onto a masonry wall some two metres thick, on which are Latin inscriptions and four large headstones dedicated to King Felipe II. It has changed several times over the years, with the removal and adding of some of the elements placed there when it was originally built.
  
• Bullfighting Museum:
  The museum has a varied collection and a photographic and journalistic archive on bullfighting, including documents and posters related to the national fiesta. There are plenty of bulls' heads from those who fought in their day in historical bullfights held all over Spain.
• Royal Collegiate Church of Santa Maria the Great :
  In a Renaissance style, it was built in the middle of the 1500's and has an exquisite Plateresque façade with fallen arches like alcoves. Inside, the Gothic Main altar is particularly spectacular, as is the beautiful Mudejar coffered ceiling.

Royal Collegiate Church of Santa Maria the Great