Alhaurin El Grande Costa del Sol Spain

In the forested areas south-east of the village of Alhaurín el Grande there are traces of Neolithic occupation: silent witnesses to the long history of human habitation of the area. A history longer than history itself.

By the time that the Romans arrived, the tiny Iberian settlement in the Sierra de Mijas was already well established, but if it had a name the Romans chose not to record it. Instead they gave it one of their own. The village became Lauro Nova. It was a spot apparently blessed by the gods: fertile, temperate, and surrounded by hills riddled with valuable mineral deposits. Roman villas popped up around the kernel of the village like dozens of Jack-in-the-Boxes springing open in rapid sequence. The hills are still dotted with their remains.

Alhaurín el Grande has survived a great deal. Waves of invaders, epidemics of plague, even an earthquake in 1680. During the Peninsula War of 1808-14 it was occupied for four years by French troops and suffered considerable bombardment.

It would not be surprising, therefore, if all traces of its long past had been regularly obliterated. But some has miraculously survived. There is the 12th Century Moorish archway, the Arcos de Cobertizo, which, while not being in any way spectacular (it stands close to the church and now leads nowhere) but at least it represents a tangible link with the past. In the small plaza in front of the town hall, the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, are three Roman columns which were discovered close by at Fuente del Sol. Unlike some other villages in the hills, Alhaurín el Grande acknowledges that it has a history, and is quietly proud of it. The plaza, incidentally, has a superb view of the valley.

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