The ‘Flintstone’ village where many houses were built inside the cliff

[English page]

• https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/10/24/the-flintstone-village-wh...

Oct 24, 2016 David Goran

 

 

 

SHARE:FacebookTwitter

Named after its once flourishing wineries, or bodegas, Setenil is probably unique among the pueblos blancos (white villages) of Andalucia.

Setenil de Las Bodegas was not developed until the 12th century by the Moors, who used the cliffs as natural protection to fortify the city.

A Spanish town built into the cliffs. Photo Credit

 

Setenil de Las Bodegas has played an important role throughout Spanish history. Photo Credit

It is an unusual town, due to its placement and its architecture, with some caves’ houses and corridor’s dug into the rocks between the white houses.

The present-day village has its origins in Medieval times and the area today officially referred to as Setenil stands on the ancient Almohad settlement.

Its blinding white houses seem to emerge from the rocks, and some have rock roofs and even olive groves on their roofs.

Most amazingly, one large overhang covers an entire block of white houses, providing shade and natural cooling during warm summers in southern Spain. Photo Credit

 

Streets in Setenil. Photo Credit1 Photo Credit2

 

The site was certainly occupied during the Roman invasion of the region in the 1st century AD. Photo Credit

According to another translation, the town’s Castilian name came from the Roman Latin phrase septem nihil (‘seven times nothing’).

This is said to refer to the Moorish town’s resistance to Christian assault. The Moors withstood six sieges and finally lost the cliff-side stronghold on the seventh.

Using gunpowder artillery, the Christians took fifteen days to capture the castle, whose ruins dominate the town today.

It resisted several times the attacks of the Christian troops, before being conquered by the Catholic Monarchs at 1488. Photo Credit1 Photo Credit2

The 12th-century castle at the top of the town was referred to as nigh-impregnable by contemporary Catholic chroniclers and blocked the Christian advance to Granada for about 50 years.

The new rulers then introduced new agricultural opportunities to the villagers, including the farming of almonds, olives, and vineyards.

The town is said to have grown out of a network of caves that belonged to ancient tribes dating back 25,000 years ago. Photo Credit

Setenil was once believed to be the successor of the Roman town of Laccipo, but it was subsequently proved that Laccipo became the town of Casares in Malaga.

Given the evidence of other nearby cave-dwelling societies, such as those at the Cueva de la Pileta west of Ronda, where habitation has been tracked back more than 25,000 years, it is possible that Setenil was occupied much earlier. Most evidence of this would have been erased by continuous habitation.