Almendinilla and Alcala la Real

Saturday Lourdes and I left Priego at 10am and drove to Almedinilla to see the Villa Romana (Roman Villa) there. A few years ago, engineers were attempting to lay a new road and they discovered a house from the Roman era.

The lower parts of its walls were still intact as were some frescoes and four floor mosaics. The house was quite large and even had a sauna inside. There were some slaves quarters, but these were mostly destroyed.

We were able to visit the villa with a guide because a tour group arrived the same time we did. He explained how the people lived and how their walk-in oven worked. He helped work on the excavation and was VERY ANGRY about the new road. (He made this perfectly clear as he talked.)

After the villa, he suggested we accompany the group up to the Pueblo Ibero (Iberian town), which is only open to groups or by appointment. We agreed: Lourdes had never been there and was interested in seeing it. The Iberian people were the first people to live on the Iberian Peninsula (namesake...duh). All that remains of their town is a few houses and stores. However, these houses are the oldest surviving structures made of mud and straw. You can actually still see the straw sticking out of the walls. The town was interesting and, like everywhere in Andalucía, the views from the hilltop were spectacular.

After Almeninilla, we headed down the road (which is sort of a country route) to Alcala la Real. We knew we had gotten there too late to see the castle during its morning hours, so we grabbed a map at tourist info and walked around the town.

The only place open was a church, inside which people were dressing a statue of a virgin. The church was nice, but nothing special. We climbed up through the town to get a view of the castle, which is really more of a fortress, from it's hight.

After grilled calamari and an awesome/bizarre salad (raw green peppers, roasted red peppers, oranges and tomatoes) for lunch, we drove up to the castle.

Inside the stone walls and gates we found the remains of a mini-city: the foundations of houses, taverns, stores, and military quarters still remain. In addition, the church and lookout towers are largely intact. The place felt somewhat like Pompeii except that it was on top of a hill overlooking lush green fields, with the snow-covered Sierra Nevada (yes, I know that's redundant) in the distance.

The church was my favorite part because it didn't have a floor. The crypts had been opened and we could see into the holes. The church had been built and reconstructed over many years; a computer screen told us which stones were from the different phases of construction.

While we were up there, it started to rain, so we headed for the car to go back to Priego. Getting out of Alcala was a pain because the map didn't say which direction the streets went. Many were tight and steep, so we didn't want to risk going down them to have to turn around. We got directions from locals, but they don't own cars and didn't know they were sending us down the hill to an intersection at which we could only turn back up the hill. We finally made it back to Priego, tired and chilly, but satisfied with our "history adventure."