Introduction
Some years ago, just before we retired, we decided to buy a holiday home in Andalusia, southern Spain. Our requirements were modest: a compact, easy-to-maintain property surrounded by mountains yet close to an established coastal resort. We wanted a consistent climate, especially in winter, and a largely uncommercialised corner of Andalusia—well away from the busy, over-developed package-tour hotspots.
We found exactly what we were looking for in a new community development on the outskirts of the village of Los Gallardos. The area felt authentically Spanish, with its arid, desert-like landscape, sweeping views of the Sierra Cabrera mountains, and a short, scenic drive to the relaxed seafront at Mojácar Playa. Los Gallardos sits close to Turre and the striking hilltop citadel of Mojácar Pueblo. We were drawn by the region’s rich history and cultural heritage, the striking flora so different from rural England, and the many opportunities for day trips further afield. We were also intrigued by the Indalo Man symbol—a good-luck charm traditionally painted on houses and businesses for protection against evil.
In this post, I’ll share a potted history of the area where we spent so many happy years, interleaved with some of my own photos to give you a sense of its charm and beauty. Please enjoy our Andalusian escapades!
Local Villages and Towns – Everyday Life in the Levante Almeriense
Los Gallardos sits in a wide valley between the dramatic Sierra Cabrera and the hills toward Bedar. It’s a relatively modern village that grew in the early 19th century around the exploitation of iron and lead mines in the Sierra Almagrera. Miners needed a base between the mines and the port at Garrucha, once connected by a now-vanished railway (remnants of an old bridge are still visible). A signposted Sendero Minero (mining trail) starts from the church plaza and lets visitors explore this industrial heritage on foot.
The village blends traditional flat-roofed whitewashed Andalusian homes with newer townhouses and villas. Nearby you’ll find the scant but evocative ruins of the Roman Villa of Cadima — a quiet reminder that settlement here stretches back much further than the mining boom.
Turre, a short distance away, has deeper roots. Its name comes from the Latin “Turris” (tower), referring to a Moorish watchtower built during Nasrid times, likely linked to Mojácar’s defences. After the Reconquista (which I’ll cover later), it became a Moorish-founded village with prehistoric, Celtic, and Roman traces still evident. The 16th-century Hermitage of San Francisco perches on a hill overlooking the town — built when the last local Moors converted to Christianity. The 19th-century Parish Church of La Purísima Concepción reflects the mining-era prosperity that also touched Los Gallardos.
From Los Gallardos and Turre, it’s a quick, scenic drive down to Mojácar Pueblo (the hilltop white village) and Mojácar Playa (the modern beachfront strip).
Mojácar Pueblo sits atop a steep hill at the end of the Cabrera range, overlooking the Mediterranean and the campo below. It blends whitewashed Andalusian architecture with narrow, mysterious Moorish alleyways, craft shops, welcoming cafés, and some of the best panoramic viewpoints on the Levante coast.
The Playa forms part of a 17 km sweep of golden sandy beaches — a pleasant 30-minute stroll or quick drive down from the Pueblo. It’s a low-rise development with shops, beach bars, restaurants, and hotels. While it expanded during our visits, it still felt relaxed and far less commercialised than many Spanish resorts. We soon found our favourite beach bars, and I still smile at the memory of the marvellous hardware store — jam-packed to the ceiling and a lifesaver when furnishing our new home.
Garrucha, just a five-minute drive north along the coast from Mojácar Playa, is a busy working town with a pleasant seafront promenade and excellent seafood restaurants. Its harbour, once defended by an 18th-century castle, historically served the agricultural and mining district. Today, the main export is gypsum mined in Sorbas — millions of tonnes annually.
Nearby Vera developed its own strong identity. Its bullring (Plaza de Toros), the oldest in Almería province, was inaugurated in 1879 and remains a centrepiece of local culture and bullfighting heritage.
Vera’s deeper claim to fame is as the place where Antonio de Torres Jurado (1817–1892), the “father of the modern classical guitar,” began his work. Born near Almería, his family moved to Vera around 1829. He apprenticed as a carpenter there and started building guitars before moving to Seville. His innovations in design, bracing, and soundboard revolutionised the instrument — today’s classical and flamenco guitars owe their form to Torres.
Respecting Vera’s heritage in the craft of luthiers, we decided to buy a Spanish guitar. We found a shop in the heart of the town — a tobacconist who also sold a wide range of guitars. After a lengthy demonstration by the owner, we chose a model with elegant marquetry banding and a rich, full-bodied tone. The guitar still carries a faint odour of tobacco to this day!
Another memorable event was when we were taken by friends to a jazz/blues music club on the outskirts of Garrucha. The venue was a dark, atmospheric basement below a small shopping mall. It was the sort of venue where local musicians dropped by unannounced with their guitars, plugged them in to the sound system and played some improvised solos of their own composition. The guitarists were very talented and did justice to the musical heritage of the region.
Ancient Roots
Human presence in the Mojácar area dates back to the Middle Paleolithic, with clear Neolithic traces around 4000 BC. The first settled communities left behind cave art and tools.
Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and Romans all left their mark. The Greeks reportedly called the area Murgis Akra (“the high point”). Under Roman rule it became a small trading post, benefiting from its strategic hilltop location overlooking the Mediterranean and the African coast.
The landscape — rugged mountains meeting azure sea — has shaped life here for millennia, offering natural defences and fertile pockets for farming.
Moorish Era (8th–15th Centuries): The Golden Age of Islamic Rule
After the Moorish conquest of Iberia in 711 AD, the Muslim-ruled region of the Iberian peninsula became known as Al-Andalus. Mojácar flourished as a frontier stronghold in the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada.
The Moors built the hilltop castle, expanded town walls, added coastal watchtowers, and constructed the kingdom’s largest cistern in southern Spain to secure water. The intricate, narrow streets, whitewashed houses, and terraced layout we see today are pure Moorish design — practical, beautiful, and perfectly adapted to the hot, dry climate.
It was a prosperous trading and defensive outpost, with strong cultural and economic ties across the sea to North Africa. The Islamic heritage is still palpable in the architecture and the town’s atmosphere.
The Reconquista and Peaceful Surrender of 1488 & Its Impact on the Area’s Culture
By the late 15th century, the Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella were closing in on the last Moorish stronghold in Granada.
In 1488, most local Moorish leaders surrendered quickly. Mojácar’s mayor, Alavez (or a similar figure), famously refused to attend the initial meeting at the Fuente Mora (Moorish Fountain). When pressed, he sent word via Garcilaso de la Vega that his people were “as Spanish as you” and wanted peace, not war. They negotiated a surrender that promised to respect Muslim customs and treat the townspeople “like brothers, not enemies.” Mojácar was granted the title of Ciudad (city) in recognition. This peaceful handover was unique in the Reconquista.
Despite the agreement, most Moors were eventually expelled or forced to convert, with many families resettling in northern Morocco (influencing towns like Chefchaouen). Yet the Moorish imprint on Mojácar’s look, layout, and spirit endured.
Today the Moors and Christians Festival is held annually (usually early to mid-June). It vividly re-enacts the 1488 peaceful surrender with parades, costumes, music, and pageantry. Crucially, it celebrates coexistence between Moors, Christians, and Jews rather than conflict — exactly the spirit of Alavez’s “brothers, not enemies” plea. It’s Mojácar’s biggest event, bigger than the saint’s day fiestas.
Civil War and the Modern Revival
The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) hit Almería province hard. The city of Almería, about 45 minutes’ drive south of Mojácar, built an enormous network of underground shelters (over 4.5 km of tunnels) to protect civilians from Nationalist bombings by German and Italian forces — one of the largest such systems in Spain.
Mojácar itself was not a major battleground, but the war and subsequent economic hardship caused drastic depopulation. Many residents left for cities or abroad; the town’s hilltop isolation amplified the impact.
In the 1940s–1950s, the Indalian artistic movement emerged as a bright spot. Led by Almerían painter/sculptor Jesús de Perceval and archaeologist Juan Cuadrado, it celebrated the region’s prehistoric heritage and drew artists to the area. They adopted the ancient Indalo symbol — a stick-figure man with arms raised (originally a Neolithic cave painting from the Vélez-Blanco caves, symbolising protection from evil, storms, and the “evil eye”). Mojácar painted Indalos on doors for luck, and it became the town’s (and province’s) emblem. The movement helped put Mojácar back on the cultural map.
The Cold War Incident
Even this quiet coast had its dramatic 20th-century moment. On 17 January 1966, a United States Air Force B-52G bomber collided with a tanker aircraft during mid-air refuelling near the village of Palomares (about 15–20 minutes from Mojácar Playa and Garrucha). The bomber was carrying four thermonuclear bombs.
The conventional explosive in two of the bombs detonated on impact, dispersing plutonium and contaminating around two square kilometres of terrain. Extensive cleanup operations removed approximately 1,750 tons of radioactive soil, which was shipped to the United States.
Mountain and Inland Drives
Our holiday home was ideally located for day trips. Driving north took us past sleepy coastal villages such as San Juan de los Terreros all the way to the ancient citadel of Cartagena. Heading south along the coastal road, with steep mountains on the right, we passed numerous scenic miradors (viewpoints) before reaching the historic provincial capital of Almería city.
The drive south toward the Parque Natural de Cabo de Gata-Níjar is especially picturesque. Starting near Mojácar or Carboneras, the route hugs dramatic cliffs, passes volcanic landscapes (like the crater-like Mesa de Roldán), and reveals wild, unspoiled beaches such as Playa de los Muertos (Beach of the Dead), El Algarrobico (famously used in Lawrence of Arabia filming), and quieter coves. The park itself is Europe’s only desert coastline — arid, volcanic, with crystal-clear waters, salt flats, and the iconic Cabo de Gata lighthouse and Arrecife de las Sirenas (Sirens’ Reef). It feels worlds away from mass tourism and perfectly complements the mountainous inland views from our home.
For a full-day adventure, we headed northwest into the mountainous Los Vélez region. The drive up from the coastal plain is spectacular. You pass many fields of orange and almond groves—a wonderful sight in Spring when the trees are in full blossom. Suddenly you’re above 1000m altitude and you’ve escaped the coastal haze and the views of the mountain scenery become crystal clear and stunning.
Vélez-Blanco sits in a spectacular high valley surrounded by dramatic peaks. Here, in the Cueva de los Letreros (Cave of the Signboards), the famous Indalo symbol was discovered in 1868 — a Neolithic/Bronze Age stick-figure man with arms raised. The cave is a protected National Historic Monument within the Sierra de María-Los Vélez Natural Park. The drive winds through changing landscapes, from coastal plains up into cooler, greener highlands — a wonderful contrast to our Sierra Cabrera views.
The Cuevas de Sorbas are another highlight. Part of the Karst en Yesos de Sorbas, this is one of the world’s most important and best-preserved gypsum karst systems. The arid climate has preserved over a thousand caves, including spectacular interiors with stalactites, stalagmites, underground lakes, geodes, and walls covered in millions of sparkling gypsum crystals. Guided tours reveal unusual formations like gypsum rings and coral-like structures.
Desert Contrast
The Desierto de Tabernas (Tabernas Desert) is widely recognised as the only true desert in Europe. This semi-arid badlands zone in the centre of Almería province was created by the rain-shadow effect of the surrounding mountains (including the Sierra Cabrera). Annual rainfall is extremely low, producing sparse vegetation, dramatic gullies, canyons, and barren hills that resemble the American Southwest or North Africa.
From the 1960s onward, it became the go-to European location for Spaghetti Westerns. Sergio Leone shot much of his “Dollars Trilogy” (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) here, along with many other classics from the spaghetti western genre. Over 300 films in total have used the area, including scenes from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Lawrence of Arabia. You can still visit preserved film sets at places like Oasys Mini Hollywood and Fort Bravo Texas Hollywood.
Closing Thoughts
We kept our holiday home in this special corner of Spain for over ten years. Ownership had its ups and downs. Property build quality in a rapidly developing region can vary, and the weather, while generally excellent, was unbearably hot in July and August. Although rain was rare, when it came the downpours were torrential — flat terraced roofs could leak, underground garages flooded quickly, and flash flooding made driving hazardous. Rapid development also brought the risk of over-commercialisation that can erode the very charm that first attracted us.
Do we regret buying a home in Spain? The answer is a definite no. Where we had our house was an undeniably beautiful area with superb coastal and mountain views. We enjoyed learning the culture and the language, visiting new places, and above all loved the relaxed nature of the place.
It was always a pleasure to escape to the sun, especially in the winter months, and simply take time out to unwind. Any questions — please leave a comment.