Spain 2017 - Day 23

Tuesday 24th January

Today was all about what we came to Spain for.  Blue sky, sunshine and warmth – how it makes everything so much better. 

We went back to Mojacar Pueblo to see it in the sunshine and I’m so glad we went back as it was really lovely.  We had hoped to get some lunch but could only find one place open with outside space and we didn’t fancy their food.  We walked right round the town – I’ll let the photos tell the story.

  

As we hadn’t had lunch we stopped off at Café Moca for some sustenance.  I had a smoothie and cheesecake and Richard had a beer and chips (man food!)

Back at the apartment I did some research into Mojacar – this is from Wikipedia.

Mojácar has been inhabited by many different groups since antiquity. Populated since the Bronze Age around 2000 BC, traders such as the Phoenicians and Carthaginians arrived to serve the growing communities. Under Greek dominion, the settlement was called Murgis-Akra, whence came the Latinized Moxacar, the Moorish Muxacra and finally the current name of Mojácar. The North African Islamic Moors established themselves in Spain in the early 8th century and the province of Almería came under the authority of the Caliphate of Damascus, and was later ruled by the Umayyads of Córdoba.

Under this second enlightened rule, Mojácar quickly grew in size and importance. With the coronation of Muhammad I of Córdoba in Granada, Mojácar and its lands became incorporated into the Nasrid sultanate, and the town found itself on the frontier with the Christian forces to the east. Watchtowers and fortresses were built, or reinforced, during the 14th century, which nevertheless did little to discourage Christian incursions and fierce battles such as the bloody event of 1435 when much of the population of Mojácar was put to the sword.

On June 10, 1488, the leaders of the region agreed to submit to the Christian forces, although Mojácar's alcaide refused to attend, considering his town to be already Spanish. At that time there was a meeting at Mojácar's Moorish fountain, where a pact of free association between the local Moors, Jews and Christians was agreed. Mojácar, once again, began to expand until the early 18th century, when the census of the time recorded 10,000 people. Around the middle of the 19th century, Mojácar began another period of decline.

Several severe droughts brought about this drop in the town's fortunes, with a consequent emigration to northern Spain, other parts of Europe and to South America. The depopulation of the town was halted in the 1960s when tourism began to reverse the trend.