VALLE
DEL GUADALHORCE - CARRATRACA INFORMATION
A town between the Serrania de Ronda and Antequera areas which has
since time immemorial been considered a gateway to the Guadalhorce
valley.
The town, of Arabic origin, grew in the 19th century as a result of
the presence here of sulphorous waters whose curative properties had
already been discovered by the Romans. In the mid-1900s, an attractive
Neoclassical spa was built, and it is still visited in large numbers
today by sufferers of a variety of ailments.
Another building of interest is the Town Hall, formerly the residence
of Doña Trinidad Grund.
History
Within the town’s municipal boundaries, in a chasm forty metres
deep in the Sierra de Alcaparain, schematic paintings and archaeological
remains from the Eneolithic period have been found. Human presence
in the area since the beginning of prehistory is evident in the neighbouring
village of Ardales where Cueva de Doña Trinidad Grund cave
features cave paintings of animals -goats, horses and stags- pertaining
to the Upper Palaeolithic period (Solutrean and Magdalenian eras,
18.000 - 14.000 B.C.).
The springs of sulphorous waters which flow in Carratraca were used
by the Romans, as witnessed by the site of La Glorieta, where copper
and silver coins bearing the images of several Roman emperors have
been discovered.
Though there was a settlement here during the Moslem occupation of
Spain, the present-day town dates back to the 19th century and appeared
as a result of successive extensions to a farm called Aguas Hediondas,
the site of a spa and a chapel to Our Lady built in the 18th century.
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