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The Colourful History of Nerja
We all know and love Nerja Spain as a beautiful spot on the Spanish Mediterranean, and a great spot for an andalucia holiday ... but what a lot of people don’t know is that Nerja dates back to the pre-historic times, about 30,000 years ago!
We know this because remains dating back to the Old Stone Age (or the Palaeolithic age) have been found in the Nerja caves. Together with artifacts from the Neolithic, Copper, Bronze and Iron ages! And of course, during the history of Nerja, the good old Romans were here too!
The Roman PeriodA number of Roman remains have been discovered, such as the remains of an old Roman road. The old Castulo-Malaca road, as the Romans called it, connected the provinces of Jaen and Almeria and then followed along the coastline all the way from Nerja to Malaga. There are two stretches of road that still remain intact as well as the remains of a Roman bridge located close to an old sugar mill that's a few hundred meters from the residential area of El Capistrano. The Romans called the town Detunda, which back in those days was located closer to Maro than the actual location of Nerja today, and archeologists have discovered old Roman coins and pottery at that location. There's even a burial place close to it. Then it was the turn of the Moors, the people from North Africa!
The Moorish PeriodWhen the Moors settled they gave the town a new name ... Narixa, also known as Naricha or Narija, which means "abundant spring". The name Nerja that we call the town today, derives from the old Moorish names. Again, the location of the old town of Narixa was different to the location of today’s town. Remains of a Moorish settlement and a fortress have been found on the Frigiliana road, which suggests that Narixa was located more inland. But the history of Nerja isn't all about conquering countries arriving.
Nerja's "Golden Years"Nerja had its "Golden years" in the 10th century where the agricultural products and silk from Nerja brought large sums of money in the markets of Damascus and throughout the Muslim world. According to Vazquez Otero, a modern day historian, the 10th century geographer Ibn Saadi loved the town so much that he dedicated a verse to it:
“Stretched out on magically coloured carpets And the historian Almacarri de Tremecen of the same century also mentioned the town in his writings. When the Catholic Monarchs established rule in Nerja in 1487, the Moors put up no resistance and soon succumbed to conversion to Catholicism. However, by 1568, the Moors had enough of the rule and that began the Moorish uprising and subsequent expulsion of the Moors in 1609 ... obviously, not a very successful uprising! The area then took on a new face with few converts and more "old Christians." Between the establishment of Catholic monarchs and the ousting of the moors, some pretty significant building took place. In 1509, the castle on the cliff (which we now know as Balcon de Europa) made its appearance and another castle on the Torrecilla Beach followed. These two were more than simple living accommodation, they were a defense system and watchtowers for the area. The history of Nerja shows growth from that point onward to the 19th century. Continued building and new commerce began with new crops like sugar cane and industry such as the mills to make sugar, Nerja began to boom again and things were good once more. Of course, as luck would have it, just as things were looking good for Nerja, the Napoleonic invasion put an end to it.
Nerja Historical Set BacksThose beautiful castles at Torrecilla and Balcon de Europa became target practice for the British, who destroyed them to keep them out of the hands of the French. If the war wasn't harsh enough for Nerja, there were also two other events that occurred in the 19th century that set Nerja back again. Near the end of 1875, grapes were an important crop for this area. Vineyards around the country faced the disaster of the phylloxera plague to their vines. The loss of crops and vines was an economic disaster that hit the area hard. If that wasn't bad enough, nine years later on Christmas in 1884, there was an earthquake that destroyed large areas of the provinces of Malaga and Granada. Even though there was only one person killed, the towns building didn't fare as well and the quake destroyed most of the town. Nerja has seen the best and the worst, as demonstrated by the history of Nerja ... from the first pre-historic man that found shelter in the caves near the town, close to 30,000 years ago, to the beautiful town that it is today, and an impressive history in between!
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