Carratraca is a village between La Serrania de Ronda
and Antequera regions which has since time immemorial
been considered a gateway to the Guadalhorce valley.
The village, of Arabic origin, grew in the 19th century
as a result of the presence here of sulphorous waters
whose curative properties had already been discovered
by the Romans. In the mid-1900s, an attractive Neoclassical
spa was built, and it's still visited in large numbers
today by sufferers of a variety of ailments. Another
building of interest is the Town Hall, formerly the
residence of Doña Trinidad Grund.
History
Within the village’s municipal boundaries, in
a chasm forty metres deep in the Sierra de Alcaparain,
schematic paintings and archaeological remains from
the Eneolithic period have been found. Human presence
in the area since the beginning of prehistory is also
evident in the neighbouring village of Ardales where
Cueva de Doña Trinidad Grund cave features
cave paintings of animals -goats, horses and stags-
pertaining to the Upper Palaeolithic period - Solutrean
and Magdalenian eras, 18.000 - 14.000 B.C. - . The
springs of sulphorous waters which flow in Carratraca
were used by the Romans, as witnessed by the site
of The Glorieta, where copper and silver coins bearing
the images of several Roman emperors have been discovered.
Though there was a settlement here during the Moslem
occupation of Spain, the present-day village dates
back to the 19th century and appeared as a result
of successive extensions to a farm called Aguas Hediondas,
the site of a spa and a chapel to Our Lady built in
the 18th century.
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