Tourism Chercos – Almería

In the Alto Valle del Almanzora (Almeria) there were important castles or hussün in Tíjola (9th-10th centuries) and a little later in Purchena. In the mountain valleys the fortified settlements are smaller but according to the same scheme (Bacares, Old Chercos, Sierro, Velefique,). The castle with its farmhouse is located at the head of the narrow valley that goes down to the river to protect itself from the incursions of Arabs or Christians, especially in times of harvest. The medieval farmhouse of Chercos Viejo is grouped around its hisn, a fortress that still dominates the entire valley. The fortress hisn, borg or qasaba is located at the top of the hill. The place of the Andalusian fort is totally strategic to control the wide valley of culture, in this case watered by the river. In the defense strategy highlights its prominent height and its wide visibility over the territory, which could give notice to the entire population in case of attack or threat. The term hisn (castle or fortified citadel) designates a complex complex, territorial and social defined by the jurisdiction exercised by the hisn over the inhabitants of the area. It is located in a high place, on the […]

Chercos, whose name derives from the Mozarabic word Yerku, which means “La Encina”, applied to the place, by the holm oak forest that existed in its surroundings. Its origins go back to the Middle Ages, when we know that this town was populated by the Moors. Located in the Sierra de los Filabres. A town whose houses, hooked on an almost vertical slope offers a balance show of the most picturesque and sober. It emphasizes its Parochial Church constructed in the middle of century XVI, with the name of Santa Maria and its Patron San Lorenzo, Santo who presides at the present time. It owns a Alcazaba or residual strength that supposes of century XVI, of which only can be seen part cistern that supplied with water to the settlers of the strength. Under Chercos Viejo runs a gallery that leads to the mine of a fountain also said time. Also highlight the Eras del Calvario and its access roads to the town for its peculiarity of being cobbled. These eras, in which the harvested corn was threshed in its term, are true works of art paved with stones of the place. These millenary constructions, already in disuse due to […]

The history of this Church is recent. Initially there was a small hermitage. This mini-temple had no shelter capacity for the population, and before the unanimous desire of the people of Chercos the construction of a larger and more comfortable Church for all its faithful takes place. The Church of San Lorenzo is a modern building, rectangular in shape, with three facades and a dividing wall; two doors on the south and east facades; three windows on the north facade and two on the south facade; seven portholes; the exposed wood roof ends with a curved, straw-colored Arab tile; the bell tower on the east facade. The altar rests on two salominal columns with Corinthian capitals and a grooved shaft that twists around the column, resting on a base that plucks a small marble platform that rises above the plan of the presbytery. Under the altar, unidentified relics have been placed that were kept in the church as part of the altar in which the mass has been celebrated for centuries. It lodges the images of San Lorenzo and the Virgin of Fátima, as well as others of great sentimental relevance for all the inhabitants of Chercos.