It was constituted in 1974 by the link of the old city councils of Moreda and Laborcillas, the district of Morelábor maintains since then its capital in the first one of the two towns. Its name comes also from the union of the two first syllables of the names of both towns.
Laborcillas was an old cortijada that belonged to the Marques of Villa Alegre, who raised for his sporadic visits the most remarkable house of the town, which extends his house in a gorge located at the bottom of the Fonseca hill, where years ago the parochial temple ended up as old hermitage of San Jose.
The district has a third urban core formed around the historical Station of Moreda, one of the most important railway junctions of Eastern Andalusia. The lines that come from Granada and Almeria, to go already together from here towards Linares-Baeza and Madrid link here.
This is a very rich town in archaeological sites. There are well conserved tombs in the Cerro de los Castellanos, in the place of Los Eriales, in the placeta of the Naranjos and the Cortijo de Fonseca. In this last one there is a great cemetery with many burials. The traveller can enjoy also visiting the parochial churches of the Anunciacion and San Jose.
The archaeological sites found document the antiquity of the first human settlements in the area in more than 5,000 years ago. The history of the present place of Moreda and Larbocillas is born in the Arab period. It was conquered by the Catholic Kings in 1485. Like all the territories of the surroundings of Guadix, Moreda also entered in the distribution made by the Catholic Kings among the most outstanding knights in the last phase of the Castilian-Aragonese conquest, corresponding in this case to the Contreras Benavides family. Since then, the area was always into the hands of landowners. In the last two centuries the property of the town and all its territory belonged in almost a feudal way to the Marquesado of the Motilla, who it was even necessary to request authorization to open new windows or doors, and that during several decades it had the district restricted in its same limits because he did not provide land for the construction of new houses. That was the reason that took in 1987 to the district corporation to expropriate by decree several areas of the old estate, whose first 5,000 square meters were occupied symbolically by the City council to construct the new schools of the town.
The villagers of Laborcillas have been hunting for centuries, for that reason, when there is a reference to its gastronomy, delicious recipes of rabbit and other meats of smaller hunting appear. Other typical dishes are the stew, migas, gachas, pimentón and the mass omelette.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
