Frigiliana , Acebuchal the "Lost Village" and Wars

 Frigiliana and Acebuchal, The “Lost Village”

 

Frigiliana is a well-known pueblo blanco (“white village”, of Moorish origins) in the hills some six kilometres inland from Nerja on the coast. 

 

Nerja Museum, Museo de Nerja

Nerja Museum: Some Things I Didn’t Know; Some Things They Didn’t Tell Me

The town of Nerja on Spain’s Costa del Sol has a modern, well thought out museum. It stands fairly inconspicuously in, and partly under, one corner of the vast Plaza de Espana, a forlorn development of mainly empty buildings set round a paved open space that is largely deserted except for fairs at fiesta time.

An Arc through Western Andalucia

An Arc through Western Andalucía

Piety and violence are never far apart in Spain. Of course, the relationship holds in many other places at many times. But Spain has its own special place, certainly given the many centuries of conflict that endure between Christian and Muslim kingdoms, and the fierceness of the Spanish Catholic response to the Reformation, let alone the treatment of subject Jews and Muslims, once the Reconquista had succeeded in 1492.

The Ousting of Spain's Moors

The Ousting of Spain’s Moriscos

The last Moorish kingdom in Spain was extinguished in 1492 when Granada fell to the Catholic monarchs. Thus ended an era of 7 centuries during which there was Moorish rule over most, or some, of Spain (an increasingly shrinking “some”).

That historical event coincided (not entirely a coincidence) with a marked increase in nationalistic Catholicism – Spain, or its ruling classes, held their country to be a triumphant Catholic nation, becoming the foremost power in Europe. 

Nerja and Frigiliana - Moors, Civil War and the Costa (April 2015)

 NERJA AND FRIGLIANA – MOORS, CIVIL WAR AND THE  “COSTA”

When someone offers the opinion that a particular Spanish town on the South coast (Costa del Sol) is “unspoilt”, there must always be implied the qualification “relatively”. The next question is, “relative to what?”. Large swathes of that coastline are hideous.

FRIGILIANA AND THE THREE CULTURES

FRIGILIANA AND THE “ THREE CULTURES”

Below the bus stand in Frigiliana, in the road beside the very convenient public conveniences, is a mini roundabout consisting of a small decorated edifice. The decorations are reliefs of the Cross, Crescent and Star of the three Abrahamic religions. The motifs are a symbol of Frigiliana’s claim to celebrate the “Three Cultlures” of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. The village’s main festival in high summer is called the Festival of Three Cultures. It was instituted in the remote past (2006) and appears to consist of a three day-and-night long street party, with lots of “3C” food and drink and lots of entertainers dressing up in 3C costumes.

One may well be puzzled by this imagery. What has Frigiliana got to do with Islam, Judaism and Christianity, all in tandem? The answer, I think, is “very little”, although the village is indeed the site of one of the battles between Islamic and Christian foes, of which more below.