Its district is surrounded by the Sagra, Castril, Cazorla and Baza mountain ranges, all of them declared Natural Park. Its surroundings are formed by places as different as the fertile fields of cultivations, watered by streams and rivers, and the empty landscapes of the desert, plagued of fossil rests and historical vestiges of the past. In its town centre we can find numerous magnificent houses-cave and viewpoints with panoramic views. In addition, Galera has seven archaeological sites belonging to the Argaric culture. The archaeological site of the Cerro del Real, in which the Iberian-Roman city of Tútugi was discovered, its cemetery that dates from the VII to III centuries b.C, and the statue of the Astarté goddess known as the Goddess of Galera, stands out. The sites of Castellón Alto and Villares de la Arqueria, or the three watchtowers of Arab origin can be visited: Tarahal, Albarrani and Ozmín. Other places of great interest are the parochial church of the Announcement, of the XVI century, that is a historical artistic national monument, or the Metal bridge of the beginning of the XX centur
The origins of this town as human settlement go back to the Copper Age. Later the Iberian culture founded on this land the city of Tútugi and later it was occupied by Romans and Visigoths. At Muslim time it was a settlement of the great prominence being border land between the kingdoms of Granada and Murcia. The Muslims raised a defensive enclosure to which the Mozarabs named Gadera. At the Middle Age the place was already known as Galera, due to its peculiar orography similar to this boat. In 1230 it was conquered by the archbishop of Toledo Jiménez de Rada, years later it was recovered by the andalusíes and in 1319 it was re-conquered by Ismail I. It belonged to the Nasrid kingdom until Neque in 1488 it was conquered by the Catholic Kings, who gave it as estate to Enrique Enríquez. In 1570, during the Moorish revolt, it was an important resistance centre against the Christian troops commanded by Juan of Austria. When the place was taken, all its inhabitants were executed, carrying out a cruel slaughter in which all the men older than 12 years old were executed. Since then the occupation of the villa was prohibited and at the end of the XVI century it was repopulated by old Christians from Levante and Castile.
The traditional recipes are the crab of the Galera river with sauce, the crespillos, gachas, oven baked segureño lamb, the andrajos or the cuscus. In addition, it has a great variety of products derived from the pig: Black pudding, garlic sausage, salchichón, sausages, butifarra, filling, etc. The excellent quality of Galera’s wines stands out as well: red, white, young and fruity, obtained from Gordal and Garnacha Tintorera grapes.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
