Benadalid

Geographic location: Located in the Sierra de Alcorca or Benadalid, 25 kilometers from Ronda and 145 from Malaga

Area: 20.80 square kilometers

Number of inhabitants: 274

What: Benalizos

Monuments: Fuerte "The Pilancón," Castillo, Cruz del Campo and the Calvary

Tourist information: Town Hall Phone: 952 152 75

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Benadalid found in the Valley of Genal, covering its territory Guadiaro Valley and the mountainous area that separates the two basins. A mountain range surrounds the urban center of this town in which he highlighted the Tagus of the aircraft, the Tajo de la Cruz and Mount Cuco, some of which exceed 1,000 meters in height. This small village of 274 benalizos, What of its inhabitants, is located on the eastern slope rock Benadalid about 688 meters above sea level. The town is built perfectly adapted to the relief of the terrain, determining how long it takes on the people of north-south. At Benadalid identifies two areas clear in its northern part, a legacy of Arabic and another around the main square of the village, where it is all the administrative and religious town.

The vegetation of this area consists of olive, almond trees, vineyards and fields of grain.

To find the beginnings of this town, we can resort to the writings of the Roman era provinentes we speak of a Celtic settlement in this area. Following the defeat of The Second Punic War would be what the Romans found upon arrival. The romanization was swift and deep, on the economic benefits that supposed to belong to the Empire. By the eighth century the Arabs will take over this county despite resistance with his defensive Roman castle and Atalaya. Its foundation lies with the Berber tribe Banu Khalid, which was derived from the Ben-Addal - sons of Khalid giving rise to the current name of the people. Benadalid became the capital of the region known as Ta Kurnna, among other areas controlled by warlord Omar Ben Hafsun, under the command of the uprising of Muladí in the Highlands and part of the Caliphate of Cordoba. Once defeated, the people rose to belong to the kingdom of Granada, and served as the border between the kingdoms of Granada and Seville, from 1286 until it was conquered by the Marquis of Cadiz in 1485, joining the Kingdom of Castile.

The Catholic Monarchs handed the manor in the Conde de Feria terms of Benadalid and Benalauría at a time 1494.Durante Moors and Christians lived together in Benadalid in a peaceful manner, until it was determined that the expulsion of the Moors around the Andalusian territory. The Old Christians who remained in the area were scarce, so the town was practically empty. Which resulted in other towns of Round to become a haven for bandits and smugglers and hence to suffer the effects of the war of independence with the French.

The houses in this town full of beauty, with their facades engobes in mud and lime, with small windows and doors framed in brown wooden lintels with a small wicket to let the light. Among the facades of these houses are some of the XVII and XVIII of Renaissance and Baroque trend within this framework we are:

Church of San Isidro

Its main building is the church built in 1505, located in the Plaza Beni Al Jali. The temple we see is the result of the reconstruction he was subjected in the eighteenth century baroque trend of the two covers of access, retains a door Mudejar blinded and the rainbow toral of the header. The clock tower and the railings of the square before the main entrance, were donated by the City of Benadalid by the year 1954.

Another prominent is the Benadalid Castle, located north of the village and burial ground now. Plant regular, trapezoidal in shape, its masonry walls are locked with lime mortar. Built with three cylindrical towers, of which only two remain. It has a tower to the south-function housing. At the center of campus is an underground cistern. It is not known either of which date back this castle, scholars claim that dates back to Roman times, and others classified in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries. What I can assure is that belonged to the Dukes of Feria-Alcalá after the Christian reconquest, later in the seventeenth century passed into the hands of the House of Medinaceli and was of Warden's residence villas and Benadalid Benalauría.

Benadalid dish has a unique and typical of this area fennel soup with vegetables in a special variant. It is also famous so-called "bad cocinajos" and Moruno stew whose main ingredient is the sardine. We can go into heat with his gazpacho soup and hot vinegar, rice with chestnuts, the porridge cachorreñas and summer as the salad is typical of cod.

The festivities begin on Benadalid from August 26 to honor St. Isidore, patron local and in the month of October marks the onomastics of the patron saint of the people, the Virgin of the Rosary. At the end of August leading festivals of big Benadalid in which activities such as Children's Day, painting exhibitions of work by the smallest and the Flemish evening after the Mass and procession in honor of San Isidoro and Highlights, the play in verse by Moors and Christians in the unique setting of the Castle. Tradition that goes back to the seventeenth century.