The Huéneja district is in the limit with the Almeria province. The town is based between two ravines and formed by neighbourhoods and inhabited cores like Cuevas, Estacion and Huertezuela. In addition to its historical patrimony, with attractions like the Arab baths and the parochial church, its tourist offer is completed with the possibilities that the surroundings offer. In its surroundings the place of Los Castaños, with a recreational area known with the name of Molino Bajo, stands out. These places are ideal to spend a day in the field, surrounded by centennial chestnuts and other trees specimen native of the slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. There are also several water births with mining-medicinal properties. It offers a great number of ways and paths to have a direct bonding with nature, to practice trekking and mountain bike.
The origin of the district goes back to prehistoric times, although it would not be until medieval times when its settlers left testimony of their stay in this region. From then its name originates, derived from the Arab wanáya. The versions coincide in the fact that it is translated as “lira”, in reference to the arc of ninety degrees that forms the cliff whose edges show over the town. Several glasses belonging to the Argar culture have been found from the prehistoric time. The district belonged also to the Bastetania and even to the Roman colony of J.G. Acci.
Of the Islamic period, the settlement of settlers coming from Yemen, according to what many experts say, stands out. In addition, of this period, data about the existence of a castle that would be located within which is the town today is found in many sources and documents. It was a farmhouse in which Boadbil, the last Nasrid king of Granada, stayed during the Mudejar revolt. The Arab baths, rests of the castle, and the base of the present canals and mills have remain from this period. During the Moorish period and of estate, and after the formation of the Sened as estate, Huéneja will be part of the same one. Time later it will depend on El Marquesado. With the Moorish revolt, the town like those of the surroundings suffered sackings and demolition of monuments. Once the rise was suffocated, it began the repopulation process by means of the delivery of territories of work, houses and tax exemptions. It was a time of great demographic mobility.
The gastronomy nourishes of exquisite and traditional dishes like migas and the pot of segadores. Some of its specialties are the stock of pimentón, its homemade bread, stews and calostros. Its pastry making, of Moorish inheritance, is wide and rich, which is formed by desserts like the sponge cake, mantecados, rolls, cake of chicharrones, almendrados and egg twisted rolls.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
