Province
& Villages - Cadiz
Cádiz Information
The White Villages
The northeast of the province of Cádiz, together with
its neighbouring districts, Serranía de Ronda, with
which it has much in common, is an area in Andalusia of singular
charm, known today as the Route of the White Villages. Indeed,
in Andalusia, where there is no shortage of lime, whiteness
is the dominant feature in these mountain villages, isolated
in the past and very welcoming today. Naturally, it is not
the outstanding feature, and there are many others which will
surprise the visitor. The varied landscapes are another prominent
characteristic and it is in fact in this area that Grazalema
Nature Reserve is situated, a humid, lush, green area since
it has one of the highest levels of rainfall in all of Spain
fir.
Villages and towns delight the visitor with the beauty of
their urban configuration, very often featuring unusual designs,
such as Setenil de las Bodegas, with its houses built into
the rock, taking advantage of the course of the small River
Guadalporcún; or Olvera, with its well-restored Castle
and wooded rocks which emerge, like green islands, amongst
the white, terraced village. On the outskirts of this village,
there is one of the most significant Andalusian sanctuaries,
that of Virgen de los Remedios, a perfect symbiosis of the
colonial and Baroque styles and the scene of a pupolar pilgrimage
festival. Grazalema itself, El Baroque, a trout fishing area,
or the small Zahara de la Sierra are another stunning villages
in a district where beauty is the norm. The visitor to be
enchanted by the fragance of the plant carpets which are laid
out as in Algodonales, for example.
There are small, inviting hotels, solid terra gastronomy and
renovated roads which make a stay in the district a very pleasant
proposition. We should not forget the wealth of local craftwork,
from the blankets of Grazalema to the acclaimed leather goods
of Ubrique, the latter a large twon almost toatlly dedicated
to the production of leather goods and with a wide range of
fascinanting caves and fiestas, some of which are celebrations
reconstructing the battles between the Moors and the Christians,
such as the one in Benamahoma, or on of many versions of the "toro embolao", a fiesta involving
bulls with protective wooden balls placed on their horns.
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