Villa Ciscarejo Country house between orange groves in Gádor (Almería)

Only a few prehistoric remains, such as those at Canjáyar, Fondón, or Padules, indicate a very sparse population in the area before Roman rule. Places such as Padules and Alhama de Almería, where the Roman bridge known as La Puente has been preserved, date back to Roman times. However, this area has been most strongly influenced by its Islamic heritage. The terraced cultivation, the town planning, the architecture, the irrigation system through moats and canals, names like Alhama, which comes from the Arabic term al-hammam (thermal bath), remind us of the Al-Andalusian past. In 1489, El Zagal visited the Alpujarra village of Láujar de Andarax, and Boabdil, the last king of Al-Andalus, took refuge in a palace that still stands today in the municipality of Fuente Victoria, a settlement belonging to Fondón, after already mourning the loss of his kingdom and its transfer to the Christian Monarchs.

The Moors, dissatisfied with the treatment they received from the Christians, rebelled several times, such as the revolt of 1500, when the mosque of Láujar de Andarax, which served as a refuge for the Moors, was set on fire by the Christians. During the Alpujarra Rebellion of 1568, led by the Moor Aben Humeya, three gruesome battles took place in the Alpujarra of Almería, such as the one in Guarros (Paterna del Río), in which the Christian troops of the Marquis of Mondújar killed 4,000 Moors. After this gruesome war, all the Moors were expelled from the Alpujarra, and it was repopulated by Christians. It was not until the 19th century, however, that the area recovered economically thanks to mining and the export of the so-called Ohanes grape. The landscape of the Alpujarra was thus planted with vines and fruit trees, reminding us of the flourishing agriculture for which these villages were known under Islamic rule.