Íllora is based in the lap of the Parapanda mountain range. In front of us the multicolour landscape of olive groves and cultivated fields that descend to the Fertile plain of the Genil unfolds; at the end, to the east, Sierra Nevada. The white small village of Íllora it holds to slopes of the rocky mountain, where its germ was.
The district offers landscapes of doubtless interest. The rests of the watchtower of Mesa, towards Alcala la Real, and of the towers of Tocon and the Encantada can still be seen, in Brácana. Excellent panoramic views are obtained throughout the road of Montefrío, which goes up through the Parapanda and Pelada mountain ranges. The one of Parapanda, with its 1,604 meters of altitude, it occupies an outstanding place in the life of the Fertile plain, being considered its barometer, of the saying "when Parapanda has montera, it rains there even if God does not want it". Special mention deserves the place of the Molino del Rey, in the area of the Soto de Roma, with a spectacular aqueduct of the beginning of the XIX century.
"The right eye of Granada": thus it was called this privileged fortress located in the middle of the Sierra de Parapanda and orientated to the Fertile plain. Plinio mentions it like Ilurco; but were the Suevos, Visigoths and Arabs, the Nasrids specially, who built the powerful fortress around which town was constructed.
If in the surrounding area the prehistoric sites proliferate, in the town centre the rests of Roman spas have been discovered showing the background of the town, consolidated in the Muslim period. Their news go back to the X and XI century, when al-Udri talks about it with the name of Illywra when talking about to the province of Elvira. Located near several passages between the north and the Fertile plain, from the XIII century became one of the main bastions of the Nasrids border, in first line after the fall of Alcala del Real in 1341. Illywra reinforced in those times its appearance of fortified villa with castle, walled enclosure and neighbourhoods, deserving the nickname of "right eye of Granada" by its importance as defensive place. Main character of incessant battles was conquered by the Catholic Kings in the spring of 1486.
In the occasion of this conquest, the writer of the period Hernando del Pulgar describes it with the following words: "This villa is put in a valley where there is a very extended fertile plain, and in that valley there is a high rock that controls all the circuit; and the villa is founded at the top of that rock, of strong towers and walls... ". After being sieged and the suburbs being attacked, the cannonade of eighteen lombardas decided the Muslim’s surrender, which left to go to Granada. Its first lord was Gonzalo Fernandez of Cordova, the Great Captain, of whom the rest of his mansion with his coat of arms in the facade are conserved.
In its new stage, Íllora was one of the Seven Villas that served as barn and pantry of the capital; little by little, while the hill of the villa became depopulated, the core of the present town grew on its feet, around the square and the church.
In Íllora vegetables like the chick-pea, the lentil and the kidney bean grow up, although the olive grove is the most important cultivation. The majority of these ingredients are used to elaborate typical dishes like ajoblanco, gazpacho, the chick-pea stew, migas, the casseroles and the pisto. The wild asparagus are cooked in miguilla, tortilla or fried, as well as the collejas and thistles. From their typical recipes stand out: gachas of mosto, remojón, the almendrado illoreño and pencas with miguillas.
© Patronato Provincial de Turismo de Granada I Diputación de Granada
