Occasionally, you get a chance to revisit a distant place that you once loved; my recent visit to the charming white village of Frigiliana was one of those places. While visiting my family in La Herradura I decided to take a 45-minute bus ride that brought me back to this ancient Moorish village in the hills of southern Spain.
Frigiliana sits 320 meters above sea level on the edge
of the Almijara-Tejeda mountain range with a view of the larger town
of Nerja (pop. 19,000) below. It is considered one of the best
preserved of the many “pueblo blancos” (white villages) that are
interspersed throughout the Spanish countryside and was voted the
most beautiful village in Spain in 1982. The deep Muslim roots of
this area date back almost 3,000 years and the village offers some of
the most authentic Arab architecture in Spain.
Frigiliana (pop.3,000) is a place where three diverse cultures: Islamic, Christian, and Hebrew, live together peacefully. In celebration, the popular Festival of Three Cultures takes place every year in August. The event is filled with lively dancing, music, local artisans, and traditional food—a good reason to return someday.
Sometimes after departing a place, I think about something that I wish I had taken more time to enjoy. In Frigiliana, that would have been the “Mosaics of the Twelve Panels.” These detailed mosaics were done by local artists in the 1960s and are now placed on walls throughout the village. Each mosaic depicts an important event that led up to the Battle of Peňon in 1567 and the end of Moorish rule. Maps and stories about the mosaics are available online.
