"In this town I had my first dream of distance. In this town I will be earth and flowers ". Federico Garcia Lorca was born the 5 of June of 1898 in the house of the teacher of the town, Doña Vicenta Lorca, his mother. For that reason in this town are many references and tracks of the universal poet and dramatist, with monuments and museums built in his memory. Fuente Vaqueros is located in the middle of the Granada’s fertile plain, watered by waters of the Genil River, surrounded by tree-lined avenues and fertile fields of cultivations. The surrounding area, scattered with cortijos, with the villages of La Paz, its simple hermitage, and Pedro Ruiz, also invite to the magic poetry of a stroll by the Fertile plain between shady choperas and green plots, with the rumour of the eternal flow of the canals.
Fuente Vaqueros shares history with the rest of the places of the Granada Fertile plain. It probably has an Arab origin; it lived the splendour of the Nasrid dynasty until the Christian conquest in 1492. It also suffered, like other towns of the area, the expulsion of the Moorish and its later repopulation with settlers from other regions.
This land was part of the Royal Site that the Crown reserved for itself after the conquest as hunting and recreational place, with dense forests where a Royal House was constructed, the Soto de Roma. After several problems, in 1813 this property was giving in to the Duke of Wellington as compensation for his service during the war of Independence against the French. Between Romilla and the Genil River the watchtower called Tower of Rome, which always was considered landmark that marked the Southern limit of the Grove can still be contemplated.
Until 1940 the town of Fuente Vaqueros belonged to the Duke of Wellington, having its land rented to the settlers and little by little he sold it to them, who populated it and gave way to the present town.
The vegetables that are cultivated in the fertile land of Fuente Vaqueros are protagonists of the traditional dishes of the town. In fact, its main cultivation of irrigated land is the green asparagus - that along with the potatoes, spinach and peppers are common elements of their recipe books. As vegetable dishes, the turkey milk, that it has no got milk but pumpkin, the soup of maimones and the potatoes in glory, with oil and vinegar stand out. About the meats, preparations like collejas al ajillo, cochifritos and the pig and its derivatives, that are cooked in the typical slaughters stand out as well. The eggs a la nieve are a typical dessert of Fuente Vaqueros, along with the wine twisted rolls. The fruit trees, like the apple trees, plum trees, khaki and pear trees that lay out the Fuente Vaqueros fields, put the dessert on their menus.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
