This district is made up of three population centres: Guájar Faragüit, in which the City council is located, Guájar Fondón and Guájar Alto. Altogether, the Los Guájares valley still constitutes a natural and landscaping privileged place.
The name Guájar derives from the Arab word Wa-run, which means steep, of difficult access. Therefore, its name makes reference to the almost inaccessibility of the three towns. It is so much like this that its structure and topography implied at its moment the change of the physical space. Canals of derivation and other hydraulic works were made, as well as the construction of terraces in the area for agricultural cultivations. These systems of irrigated land still last today.
Its first settlers were probably Almohads that lived in farmhouses. With the Reconquista, the territory of this district was distributed by the Catholic Kings between some of their main lieutenants, corresponding Guájar Faragüit to Luis de Portocarrero and Guájar Fondón to Don Juan de Ulloa. During the so called Alpujarras War it was lived here one of its bloodier episodes, when the troops of the Marques of Mondéjar went up the course of the Toba river with the order to kill whoever Moorish found in their way.
After the Moorish expulsion and the later repopulation of the place with settlers of other regions, the farmhouses that until then occupied the valley were reduced to the three present Guájares, being left the old fortified town existing in the pago known at the moment with the name of “El Castillejo”.
Homemade sausages, pots, stews, salads of tomatoes dried under the sun, orejones and migas are some of the delights that the Guajares’ cuisine offers. Choto in sauce is one of most famous dishes made in the region.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
