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The
municipality of Igualeja, between the Sierra Blanca and Sierra Bermeja ranges
and the Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park, is a distillation of the most characteristic
features that geographically define the River Genal valley. The headwaters
of this river are just outside the village, whose houses are not visible from
any other locality and which actually hides from the visitor’s view
until nearly the last bend in the road. For more information about property
for sale in Spain in or near Igualeja please contact us.
The visitor will realise before getting to the village that he is travelling
through a tremendously rugged terrain. It is thickly covered by forests, broken
only by the breaches, that had to be opened when building the road that skirts
the Cascajares mountain range. This is the route that affords the very best
views of the Genal valley, which is saying plenty considering that this is
one of the areas that is most blessed by nature in the entire province of
Malaga. In these parts, level land is almost an
abstract concept or impossible dream, since everything tends to slant just
as much as the countless slopes that meet the channel of the Genal at sharp
angles softened only by the leafy forest cover. In fact, in most of Igualeja
the soil only allows the growth of olive or chestnut groves, and only to a
lesser extent next to the village and on the riverbanks are there orchards
and other types of vegetation that give a somewhat domesticated appearance
to the landscape.
It is as though Igualeja’s history has been hidden away in the vegetation and is yet to blossom, as very few records exist with which to reconstruct its past. All that historians have been able to conclude is that the first settlements in this area occurred during the Muslim domination and that, after the conquest of the Highlands by the Catholic Monarchs, the modern municipality of Igualeja came under the jurisdiction of Ronda as a feudal holding of the Crown Prince Don Juan. With the death of the Crown Prince, the properties were inherited by his widow and later went back to the Crown until they obtained the status of an independent municipality. Aside from these historical footnotes and having no significant events on which to form a judgment, it is reasonable to presume that the community had the same fortunes as its closest neighbours. There is a belief that Igualeja’s name comes from the fact that upon the expulsion of the Moors, the Christian colonisers divided the lands of its former occupants “por igual” (“equally”).
Fiestas
Igualeja’s first celebration of the year is the carnival, when the villagers
organise musical and street performance groups, don disguises and participate
in the customary competitions to select the winning group. Corpus Day is also
a very special event for this village, which celebrates it with gaudy display.
The patron saint fiestas are divided, with one in honour of Santa Rosa de
Lima on 23 August and the other in honour of San Gregorio Magno on 12 March.
On both dates, the village participates both in the religious functions and
in the entertainment activities organised by the Town Hall.
As could hardly be otherwise in the case of the locality that ranks first in chestnut production, Igualeja celebrates the chestnut festival on All Saints’ Day with the corresponding chestnut roast. As in many other villages, it consists of spending a day in the country roasting and eating chestnuts accompanied by whatever accompaniment the individual prefers. In Igualeja Semana Santa (Holy Week) has two aspects. It can’t be said that they are very different from one another since they are the two sides of the same coin, but they do function with different aesthetics. On one side are the processions that take to the streets on Holy Wednesday and Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when the Child Jesus is borne in a procession followed by the Virgin Mary, both carried by women and children.
On the other side is the live enactment of the Passion, or the “Pasos”. On Sábado de Pasión (the Saturday before Palm Sunday) the “Pasos” proclamation is given and on Palm Sunday the Entry into Jerusalem is enacted. The stage productions return on Holy Thursday with different scenes: the Encounter with the Samaritan, the Council of Caifas and the Last Supper, and on the following day the main events related in the Gospels until the death of Christ are acted out.
Food
Strange as it may seem, one of the most popular dishes in Igualeja
is salmorejo (a sauce made with breadcrumbs, tomato juice and olive oil),
which is much more common in the province of Cordoba,
from which it comes, or even in the Antequera
region than in a village in the Málaga mountains.
Malcocinado (a pork and chickpea stew), chivo (stewed kid) and migas (a dish
made from fried bread crumbs) make up part of the indigenous recipe list of
this area, where in summer gazpacho (a cold soup) also has a distinguished
place at the table.
Mantecados (shortbread) at Christmas time, borrachuelos (pastries made with
wine) and roscos (spiral pastries) are the most noteworthy confectionery products.
The local wine and olive oil are indispensable in preparing these recipes.
How to get there:
If coming from the Costa del Sol take the AP-7 (N-340) expressway
to San Pedro de Alcántara and there take the A-376 towards Ronda.
About 12 kilometres short of that city turn onto the MA-526 road. Igualeja
is 9 kilometres from this crossroads by that road.
Tourist information:
Town Hall, Plaza de Andalucía, 26 (29440). Telephone: 952
181 620; Fax: 952 181 693.
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