Located on the slope of Monte Rosado and in front of the North face of Sierra Nevada, La Peza was an old Roman castro, whose name comes from the word lápice (stone), and on whose lot the medieval fortress in charge to guard the old road from Guadix to Granada by the Huétor Mountain range was built. This district has more than 50 kilometres of forest tracks that allow to cross its 6,000 hectares of mountain range and forest, where the pines, the oaks and the tree-lined avenues alternate in great numbers of corners and natural places of remarkable beauty, scattered of old cortijos, fountains, mines, rocks, hills and viewpoints.
The patrimony of La Peza, witness of its history, constitutes also an attraction. The Parochial Church of the Announcement, the Arab Bañuelos, the hermitages of Santa Lucia, San Francisco, San Marcos and San Sebastián, as well as the fountains of Las Guijas, the Perdices and the Encantada stand out.
In the times of the Roman domination it receives the name of Roman Castrum and this time is exactly the one that dates the origin of this town. It was located then on the side of a road to serve as resting and supplying place to travellers as much as soldiers. Its present name comes from the Nasrid period, Labassa, in relation to the stone that was extracted from its quarries: lápice. It was name La Peca or Peca after the Reconquista and in the XIX century it was called Lapeza.
In 1489 it was conquered by the Catholic Kings, although it maintained all its Arab enchantment and its strong convictions, but that did not avoid to it to be put under the Castile Crown and not to add to the Moorish rebellion, doing these numerous prisoners in this villa.
In 1810 an outstanding episode of the Independence War occurred in La Peza, when the mayor Manuel Atienza, coal miner, resisted with one cannon and he jumped in the Barruecos Ravine before falling into the hands of the French invaders. However, the French ended the tradition of La Peza to serve as road between Granada and Guadix, when they opened a new road by El Molinillo.
La Peza has also been well-known by the coal production, and it is even said that here the best coal miners lived.
Besides the good bread, in La Peza ,dishes like the stew of San Antón, the cod with tomato and a sort of rice that in some houses they call “macho”, can be tasted. The carda cakes, the bread twisted rolls for San Marcos, the wine twisted rolls, the almendrados and the buñuelos stand out as well.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
