SayalongaTop Offers
The village of Sayalonga is in the heart of the Axarquía, 44 kilometres from Malaga on the N-340 and 28 kilometres almost due east from the town of Vélez-Málaga. The village itself is situated just nine kilometres from the coast and 359 metres above sea level, while the highest point of the municipality, the hill known as La Rábita, reaches 672 metres. The village is crossed by a main street with an intricate maze of narrow winding passages on either side. A new wide square is situated at the entrance to Sayalonga and this has become the focal point of village life. The narrowest of all the streets, with low, one or two-storey houses on either side, is Calle La Alcuza, where at either end your elbows brush against the walls as you pass. The historical origins of Sayalonga are confusing. The foundation of the settlement has been attributed to the Moors simply because no remains from earlier civilisations have been found, although the etymology of the name, Saya-longa, is clearly Latin and means "long tunic". To the west of the village lies La Rábita hill. This was the site of a sanctuary or monastery of warrior monks introduced by the Arabs from the eleventh century onwards to defend the area. It was here, at La Rábita, that the poet Ali Ibn Ahmd Ibn Muhammad Al-Hasni was born at the beginning of the fourteenth century. He was the person who wrote the history of the holy city of Mecca and also that of the Moorish governors of Malaga. When the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, conquered Vélez-Málaga, Sayalonga also fell, as did all the other local villages. In a short time the municipality was relegated to second place in the administration of the area and so the inhabitants joined in the rebellion of Arabs living under Christian rule, which led to their expulsion after the final denouement, the battle of Frigiliana, in 1569. The name Loma de Matamoros (Moor-killing hill), on the road to La Rábita, dates from this time, as do the Moorish graves nearby. King Philip II issued a royal decree in 1571 in which the goods and assets of all the Moors were confiscated and handed over to the Christians who had arrived from different parts of Spain to settle in the area. The newcomers continued with the same type of agriculture as before, creating terraces, which are still in use today. The economy of the area is based almost entirely on the vineyards, although tropical fruit have been introduced in recent years. |
