ITINERARY: Olvera - Ronda - Ajate - Gaucín - Jimena de la Frontera - Castellar de la Frontera - Tarifa.
The name of some Andalusian towns recalls their past situation on the frontier between Christian and Moors. Established in the 13th c., the frontier between Castille and the Nazari Kingdom of Granada was somewhat oscillating.
This tour, through the lovely hills of Cadiz and Malaga that plunge donw towards Gibraltar, had one of the most "mobile" flanks, where the "battle of the Strait" was waged.
Olvera is a whitewashed picture of the Middle Ages: the township is clustered on the hillside and way up on top there emerges a church and the remains of a castle. Not many kilometres away, near Alcalá del Valle, stand the ruins of and old 16th c. Franciscan convent. Once powerful Ronda still remains of its walls.
The castles and, much like the defensive bastions at Gaucín, Jimena and Castellar, are right at the top of the hills. Near the walled village of Castellar, we come upon the remains of the old 16th c. Mercedarian convent of La Almoraima. And in Tarifa facing Africa, the 11th c. castle of Guzmán the Good recalls the legendary gesture whereby this Castillian lord elected to sacrifice his son rather than to surrender.
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