Its municipal area stretches from the eastern section
of Sierra de Mijas to the Guadalhorce Valley and the
Malaga Basin, in a landscape ranging form pine groves
to vegetable gardens, sprinkled with numerous housing
estates and residential areas.
The village was founded by the Arabs,
but retains little evidence of its Moslem past, having
become a dormitory town for Malaga and Torremolinos.
Nearby are the Royal Pigeon Shooting Society and a golf
course.
History
Its origins date back to the period in which Gades exercised
its hegemony over the whole of the Frentum Gaditanum
(Straits of Gibraltar), over three thousand years ago,
when the Phoenicians began their wanderings and founded
their first commercial factories, encouraged by the
rich mineral deposits to be found in the south of the
peninsula. In Roman times, it was called Lauro Vetus,
and, later, Laurona. According to Floro, fugitives from
the Battle of Munda took refuge in Lauro, and it was
here that supporters of Julius Caesar beheaded Gnaeus
Pompeius. He may have been referring to Lauro Vetus,
although the early settlement was located lower down
than the present-day village. During the Moslem occupation
it was called Alhaurein. Remains of Arabic walls are
to be found in the village, specifically in the Torre
de Alhaurin vegetable garden. It was conquered by the
Catholic Monarchs in 1485. On 5 December, 1831, in La
Alqueria, a district in the village’s municipal
area, General Torrijos and his entourage, who, a few
days previously, had landed on the beaches of Fuengirola,
believing that the people of Malaga and, more importantly,
its garrison would support his insurrection against
Ferdinand VII’s absolutist régime, were
cornered. After 3 days of resistance, they gave themselves
up and were shot a few days later on The Misericordia
beach in the provincial capital; he was later buried
in the mausoleum which stands at the centre of Plaza
de la Merced square in Malaga. The 18th century saw
work begin on an aqueduct which was never completed,
today the remains of this unusual project still stand,
a curious architectural structure which has provided
shelter for a severals houses built under what have
become known as Zapata Arches - Arcos de Zapata - .
At the end of the 19th century, Alhaurin de la Torre,
along with the rest of the province, was affected by
a phylloxera epidemic, which destroyed most of the village’s
vines.
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