"Its huge fertile plain, similar to the countryside of Damascus, is - by the infinite praises that could be said- the story of the travellers and the conversation of the evenings. God extended it like a carpet over a plain covered by streams and rivers and where the alcarias and gardens whirl, in the most delightful situation and with the greater abundance of cultivated fields". Thus described by the Cordovan writer Al-Saqundi in the XIII century, Maracena is located in the surrounding area of the capital, placed in the Granada’s Fertile plain. Its land and very well looked after cultivated fields turned it in one of the most prosperous towns of the area of the zone centuries ago and today it is protagonist of an important urban development. In addition to the agricultural wealth of its land, this town has as economic engine the services sector.
The origin of Maracena it has to be looked for in the Roman period, as it testifies its name, Maratiena, the place, the inheritance of Maratius. That it was an important centre of population is demonstrated by the fact that in the Casería de los Titos a stone of an oil mill dated in the II century a.C was found.
At Muslim time, Marasana, lived a time on prosperity without equal, broken once in a while by the Christian incursions, like the one of Alfonso I El Batallador looking for mozarabs from Granada in 1126. After the conquest of Granada and the crisis of the Moorish population, Maracena had to be repopulated. In the later centuries it was dedicated to the agriculture, the grapevine over all, with the XX century it arrived the cultivation of the tobacco and a fast expansion in its industrial and residential areas.
They are known in the popular recipe book gachas of must. The variety of sausages, migas of maize and the chick-pea pot also stand out in its table. Among the rich meats that can be tasted in Maracena they have the rabbit and collejas al ajillo.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
