Between the solid mass of limestone of the Sierra
de Libar and the River Guadiaro stands Benaojan, which
still retains the essence of the Arab designed villages
with their narrow streets and whitewashed houses.
Our Lady’s Church is its most noteworthy building,
and the cured pork sausage industry which has made
Benaojan deservedly famous is clearly in evidence.
Just seven Km from the village, on the slopes of the
Sierra de Libar, stands The Pileta cave, considered
to be the finest example of Andalusian cave art.
History
At the valley of the River Guadiaro, between El Libar
and El Oreganal sierras, in the foothills of La Serranía
de Ronda mountain range, the municipal area of Benaojan
was the scene of prehistoric man’s intrepid
struggle for survival. It is home to Cueva de La Pileta
cave, a veritable cave painting sanctuary discovered
in 1911 by the English archaeologist Verner and declared
a National Monument of Cave Art in 1924, which contains
magnificent pictorial works from different periods
of prehistory, particularly the Magdalenian era; Pablo
Picasso would surely have attributed the huge fish
painted in one of its chambers to one of the most
outstanding painters in the history of art. Further
evidence of the presence of prehistoric settlers was
found at at Hundidero-Gato, though these underground
caves have now been completely stripped of their archaeological
relics. The present-day site of the village is of
Arabic origin, as its name would suggest, deriving
from the Arabic Ibn Uyan, meaning "house of bakers".
Benaojan Castle was destroyed along with those of
Montecorto and Audita by the Catholic Monarchs in
1487. After the Christian conquest, the local moriscos
- Moorish converts to Christianity - slowly left the
lands of which they felt they had been stripped, until
they were finally expelled in the second half of the
16th century in the wake of a failed rebellion. In
1571, the village and its municipal area were repopulated
by Old Christian families from Castile.
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