Casares and Manilva
GENERAL INFORMATION
CASARES
The village of Casares , only 14 kilometres from the bustling and cosmopolitan Costa del Sol , unexpectedly displays to the visitor the most authentic character of those mountain villages that have miraculously avoided an absurd and poorly understood modernity. This locality has preserved in its urban quarter an ambience of quieter times while, to the extent permitted by good taste, making those renovations to its infrastructure that modern life demands. Such balance is anything but easy, but in Casares it has been achieved and it is considered one of the most beautiful villages in Spain , as evidenced by the fact that in 1978 it was designated a Historical-Artistic Complex.
Its municipal territory stretches between the Costa del Sol , of which it is a part, the Ronda highlands and the Gibraltar plain. As a result, it shows some of the characteristics of each of those three zones, although the mountain region more influences its appearance than the other two. There are deep gorges in the direction of Sierra Bermeja, small pine woods stretching toward the peak of Los Reales (1,440 metres) and limestone heights in Crestellina, at the entrance to the Genal valley, where a majestic community resides: a colony of Griffon vultures that can easily be seen in full flight.
In the western part of the municipality the River Guadiaro, after receiving the waters of the Genal, opens up its valley to a succession of orchards and gardens that advance towards the sea among gentle hills covered by grain fields and a few grazing lands, a clear forerunner to the border landscape of Cádiz
Prehistoric man left his imprint in different places in this municipality, as, for example, the caves and shelters of Ferrete, Crestellina, Pelliscoso, the La Novia hill, Utrera and the farmstead of Alechipe (or perhaps Alepiche), where remains have also been discovered that may have belonged to the Roman city of Lacipo, which seems to have been built over an Iberian-Phoenician town. What's more, Casares came to have its own coinage during the Roman era.
It is hard to establish today just what role Casares played in Betica during the Roman period but it is obvious that it must have been of definite importance considering the archaeological remains that have been discovered, such as the aforementioned city of Lacipo .
There is also no doubt that the present urban zone is of Arabic origin, as shown by the ruins of the fortress on top of the rocky hill on which the village lies. From a comparison of Casares with other localities in Málaga it is reasonable to suppose that farm communities sprang up in the surroundings of the castle and with time came to form the village. After the taking of Ronda in 1485 it surrendered to the Christian troops and was granted as a feudal holding to Rodrigo Ponce de León, Duke of Cádiz.
The residents of Casares were not only affected by, but actively participated in. the Moorish uprising, which in this area was put down by Don Juan de Austria, and in the second half of the sixteenth century a pact was signed in this village that brought to an end one of the Moorish rebellions. In the late eighteenth century (1795) Manilva was separated from Casares and given the privileges of a villa (royal burgh), and only a few years later the population found itself caught up in the confrontations with the invading French army. Casares and Cádiz had the distinction of being the only population centres that could not be taken by the Napoleonic troops.
HOW TO GO TO CASARES
Turn off the AP-7 (N340) expressway at Manilva and take the A-377. After some ten kilometres on this road take the turning for Casares and it will be about three kilometres more
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MANILVA
This municipality contains five urban centres between the River Manilva and the border of the province of Cádiz that originated in different eras and among which the population is distributed: the actual village of Manilva, Sabinillas, El Castillo, Hondacavada and El Puerto de la Duquesa, as well as various housing developments that are in a state of constant and orderly growth.
The landscape, far now from the rugged interior of the province, displays the topographic features of the nearby Campo de Gibraltar (Gibraltar area) being a succession of low hills creased by short streams that empty directly into the sea (Alcorrín, Martagina, Indiano, Estanquillo, etc). On one of these hills, specifically that of Los Mártires, sits the village at less than three kilometres from the coast.
It is known that these lands were covered with vineyards at least since the sixteenth century and they continue to be, but they do not constitute the only crop as there are also areas devoted to grain, vegetables, fruit trees and pastures. The last two are more abundant the closer one gets to the River Guadiaro on the border of the province of Cádiz .
Manilva's location, very close to the Straits of Gibraltar, has meant that practically every culture that has passed through the Iberian Peninsular has also passed through this territory. There is no doubt that since the Neolithic period there has been uninterrupted human settlement of one sort or another right up to the present time. There are late Neolithic remains in some caves in the Utrera mountain range,
and at the Cerro del Castillo archaeological site Bronze Age remains have been found.
But here again it was the Romans who left the most tangible traces of their culture, such as the Roman villa of Sabinillas, the ruins of what apparently was a tower on the El Hacho hill, and some ceramics at Haza del Casareño. The sites from the Muslim domination are found in the interior, rather far from the coast.
Beginning with the sixteenth century the history of Manilva parallels that of Casares, the county to which it belonged at that time. The lack of security in this area of the Mediterranean during that century was a danger to many communities, causing Málaga, Gibraltar and Ronda to ask Carlos V to urge the Duke of Arcos to provide more protection and to set up a town on the coast.
In 1528 Carlos V ordered the construction of a tower at El Salto de la Mora, and shortly afterwards half a hundred residents of Casares set up residence on the Los Mártires hill. These would be the first settlers of the original Manilva, which would continue to be subordinate to Casares until 1796, the year it achieved its independence.
HOW TO GO TO MANILVA
From any point on the Costa del Sol , take the Mediterranean expressway towards Cádiz. Beginning at Estepona there are two options: either continue on the aforementioned AP-7 expressway, or else get onto the old coastal highway N-340. In either case, the signs for Manilva will leave no doubt, but you must take the A-377. The village is very close to the coast and halfway between the two aforementioned routes.
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