The municipality of Igualeja, between the Sierra Blanca and Sierra Bermeja ranges and the Sierra de las Nieves Natural Park, is a distillation of the most characteristic features that geographically define the River Genal valley. The headwaters of this river are just outside the village, whose houses are not visible from any other locality and which actually hides from the visitor’s view until nearly the last bend in the road.

The visitor will realise before getting to the village that he is travelling through a tremendously rugged terrain. It is thickly covered by forests, broken only by the breaches, that had to be opened when building the road that skirts the Cascajares mountain range. This is the route that affords the very best views of the Genal valley, which is saying plenty considering that this is one of the areas that is most blessed by nature in the entire province of Málaga.
In these parts, level land is almost an abstract concept or impossible dream, since everything tends to slant just as much as the countless slopes that meet the channel of the Genal at sharp angles softened only by the leafy forest cover. In fact, in most of Igualeja the soil only allows the growth of olive or chestnut groves, and only to a lesser extent next to the village and on the riverbanks are there orchards and other types of vegetation that give a somewhat domesticated appearance to the landscape.

It is as though Igualeja’s history has been hidden away in the vegetation and is yet to blossom, as very few records exist with which to reconstruct its past. All that historians have been able to conclude is that the first settlements in this area occurred during the Muslim domination and that, after the conquest of the Highlands by the Catholic Monarchs, the modern municipality of Igualeja came under the jurisdiction of Ronda as a feudal holding of the Crown Prince Don Juan. With the death of the Crown Prince, the properties were inherited by his widow and later went back to the Crown until they obtained the status of an independent municipality.
Aside from these historical footnotes and having no significant events on which to form a judgment, it is reasonable to presume that the community had the same fortunes as its closest neighbours. There is a belief that Igualeja’s name comes from the fact that upon the expulsion of the Moors, the Christian colonisers divided the lands of its former occupants “por igual” (“equally”).

Outstandings Visits:
The urban layout of Igualeja is as complex as it is picturesque. It lies in a very steep-sided box canyon and is crossed by the River Genal. The Barrio Alto (Upper Neighbourhood), with its winding streets and steep gradients, is on the right bank of the river. The Albaicín neighbourhood is spread over the left bank, in a much more level area in which the church, the main plaza and several of the best houses in the village are located. The two neighbourhoods are linked by a single-span bridge, that generally goes unnoticed by people who are not familiar with the place.

The Santa Rosa de Lima church was built in the sixteenth century over a former mosque, whose minaret it put to use. It was modified in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and finally in the twentieth century it was again remodelled, to the point that nothing remains of its original structure except the former minaret, which serves as a tower. In its interior, it houses some images of acknowledged artistic merit, such as a seventeenth century Granadino School polychrome wooden figure of Saint Anthony. There is also a Crucified Christ and a Child Jesus from the eighteenth century and a San Gregorio Magno (Saint Gregory the Great) from the same era.

How to Get There:
If coming from the Costa del Sol take the AP-7 (N-340) expressway to San Pedro de Alcántara and there take the A-376 towards Ronda. About 12 kilometres short of that city turn onto the MA-526 road. Igualeja is 9 kilometres from this crossroads by that road.

 

Interesting Facts:
Surface Area: 43.8 square kilometres
Population: about 1,000
What the natives are called: Igualejeños
Monuments: the Santa Rosa de Lima church and the headwaters of the River Genal.
Geographical Location: in the Genal valley (Ronda highlands). The village is 700 metres above sea level and 20 kilometres from Ronda and 142 kilometres from the city of Málaga. The average rainfall is 1,200 litres per square metre and the average temperature does not exceed 13.5º C.
Tourist Information: Town Hall, Plaza de Andalucía, 26 (29440). Telephone: 952 181 620; Fax: 952 181 693.