Piñar, with its castle as flag in the mountain range that takes its name, attracts by its patrimony as much as by its history. It is a town where the olive trees and almond trees enhance the colourful landscape.
The name of Píñar could come from the form of the isolated knoll that crowns the majestic silhouette of its medieval castle, whose long wall and tall towers are visible from many kilometres of distance.
Within the tourist offer of Píñar its caves, many of them inhabited at Prehistoric times, stand out. The Cave of Meye, the Cave of the Confites and the Cave of the Carigüela stand out. Anthropological rests of the Neanderthal period have been found in the last one, which turns it into one of the main archaeological sites of the south of the Iberian Peninsula, with a sequence of occupation of 125,000 years.
Although without a doubt the most advisable and, mainly, easy to visit, is the Cave of the Windows. It has been completely prepared for the tourist visit and it is even prepared to be crossed comfortably by people with physical deficiencies.
The Píñar district has been human settlements from remote times of the Prehistory, at least from the Middle Palaeolithic and the Neolithic period. Many of the archaeological sites and caves found testify it this way. It was also inhabited in the Copper and Bronze ages, and later by cultures like Iberians and the Romans, of which the Magistrate of Periate has been found, a bronze sculpture that represents the emperor Claudius II the Gothic one.
During the Islamic domination a fortress was constructed (declared National Monument), in spite of which it suffered the operations of harassment carried out by the knights of Cazorla. Shortly before Granada, it fell into the Catholic King reign, being alcaide Sidi al Mandari that founded, when leaving to North Africa, the city of Tetuán, today bounded with Píñar. After the Moorish expulsion it suffered a period of decadence and nowadays there are great perspectives because the Cave of the Windows has been opened to the public, which it is without a doubt the attraction centre of the tourism.
Many of its restaurants are famous by the barbecued meats. But in addition it is possible to taste in Píñar migas cortijeras, lamb a la campesina, andrajos with hare and soup of panecillos, choto al ajillo, hot gachas and trotters, among other dishes.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
