Yunquera

The municipality of Yunquera receives the full benefit of the extraordinary scenery and ecology of the Sierra de las Nieves mountain range. It not only makes up a part of what is, strictly speaking, the Sierra de la Nieves Nature Park but also of its surroundings, which have been declared a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Due to the strict rules that govern any activity performed in this territory after this international designation, a traveller here enters one of the most scenic and well-protected areas in the province of Málaga.

Even outside the boundaries of the Nature Park the lands of Yunquera offer the traveller a number of places where the combination of hills and valleys, and the inescapable presence of the Spanish fir as the main species of tree, create astonishingly beautiful sites such as can be seen in the vicinity of the Nuestra Señora de las Nieves convent ruins on the border of the municipality of El Burgo. Simply listing all the “unique places” to be found within the boundaries of this municipality would be just as tedious as speaking insistently of the powerful attraction wielded by a territory that has received almost all the blessings of nature. The visitor will realise all this for himself when he begins to get close to Yunquera.

The place occupied by the village is one of the passes that allow the eastern mountains of the Ronda highlands to be crossed with relative ease. Taking into account also the abundant water that flows from springs in the mountains, it is reasonable to presume that the area was inhabited since the Prehistoric period. It would not be until the arrival of the Romans, however, that there was a stable settlement, and even then, it was composed of widely scattered farmhouses and leisure villas.

Every indication is that Yunquera never achieved a status worthy of being called a Roman city, but rather was a community that was cut off from the commercial and political life of that era. There is no Roman highway, an indispensable feature for holding the Empire together, that passes through the area, nor are there archaeological sites showing the existence of any kind of noteworthy construction other than the two remaining bridges on the road to Ronda. It is known, however, that the Romans called the place Juncaria, which means something like, “meadow of rushes”.

The Arabs, with their proverbial reverence for water, learned how to derive maximum benefit from the abundant flow from the mountain springs. For this purpose, they designed a series of gardens that were easily irrigated by an ingenious conduction system. There has been no basic change in this agricultural tradition, which can now be seen in areas devoted to cultivation in the valleys of the Rivers Grande and Jorox. The tablelands, meanwhile, are dominated by olive groves.

Although there are traces of an earlier Arabic settlement, modern Yunquera was formed after the Christian conquest in 1485, more precisely when these lands were repopulated by people who had come from Estepa.

How to Get There

The most advisable route to Yunquera starts at the city of Málaga. Take the A-357 highway towards Campillos. After about 14 kilometres, you will get to Cártama, and immediately after that village, you must take the A-355 to Coín. From that locality, you must continue by way of the A-366 to Alozaina. (This is the same road as the A-355 but this stretch has a different name.) At Alozaina, continue on the same road to Yunquera.

If you start from Ronda, you should likewise take the A-366, but towards Málaga. You will come to El Burgo after about 25 kilometres and to Yunquera 9 kilometres farther along.