Here are 4 reasons to discover Arboleas. This municipality is located in the Valle del Almanzora.

Arboleas town that is located on the right bank of the Almanzora river, located on its fertile plain that is irrigated with the waters of the river and the immediate springs. They say that in past centuries tasty trout was caught in its crystalline waters, which moved more than a dozen flour mills settled in as many villages located along its course.

We start by visiting, and especially art lovers, we cannot miss visiting the Pedro Gilabert Museum, which is dedicated to the brilliant naive artist Pedro Gilabert, born in Arboleas in 1915. The permanent collection is made up of more than 140 sculptures carved in olive wood by the artist.

In addition to 2 permanent exhibition halls, the museum has an assembly hall and 2 traveling exhibition halls. Thanks to these facilities, the Pedro Gilabert Museum has an extensive program of temporary exhibitions throughout the year, serves as a stage for traveling exhibitions organized by other institutions and hosts different cultural activities in the municipality and the region.

Foto Torre de Arboleas

One of the places that can attract our attention the most is Torre Vigía of Arboleas, located on the right bank of the Almanzora River. Dating from the 12th century (Nazari period), small in size, with an octagonal floor plan, it did not house the population of Arboleas due to its small size but it did serve as a watchtower. It is possible that it is a minaret of an existing mosque in Arboleas.

The Arboleas Watchtower is characterized by smooth and simple walls, to one side it has a small cistern attached to store rainwater. An upper body has been attached to the old tower with convex bricked-up windows that constitute the only adornment.

The Watchtower of Arboleas, is one more of those that were distributed along the entire course of the Almanzora river. Unlike the others, which are circular, it has an octagonal plan, which suggests that it could have been rebuilt in the Muslim period, due to its shape and color.

We must not miss an interesting hamlet on which its Parish Church of Santiago stands out as a building of greatest interest, a work built in the second half of the 19th century, in an eclectic style.

It receives the name of Santiago Apóstol, although the Patron is San Roque. Built in the mid-19th century by the architects López Rull and Ortiz de Villejos in the neoclassical style. It has three oculi typical of Gothic architecture as well as its cover that presents arches inward. Between the central and lateral naves, iron columns imitating marble are placed. This detail shows traces of modernity due to the iron mines and the appearance of various local foundry industries. Its dome is half orange that is placed on top of the transept, whose purpose is to give light to the Church. In its altars, golden details typical of the Baroque stand out.

Foto iglesia Arboleas

Foto Mina Espejuelos

The Espejuelo Mine located on the north slope of the Limaria hill, next to the urban center of Los Higuerales, is an important deposit of ‘lapis specularis’ or eyeglasses, dating from Roman times.

The intervention in the mine, registered as an Asset of Cultural Interest in the General Catalog of Andalusian Historical Heritage, has made it possible to investigate the morphology of the mine and the extension of its galleries to discover its full potential and put it in context with respect to other deposits of eyeglasses in the Roman Empire that exist in Europe. The possibility of making it visitable is about to become a reality since the mine adaptation works are being completed.

(*) The text of the excursion has been taken from the blog of Guide Jose Antonio Alias: https://guiajoseantonio.wordpress.com/2021/01/18/arboleas/

WHERE TO EAT IN ARBOLEAS

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