Alhama de Granada, Granada, Andalucia

Alhama de Granada

Alhama de Granada is a town in the province of Granada, approx. 50 km from the city of Granada. The name is derived from the therman baths located there, which are called al-hammam in Arabic.

In 1482, the fortress town was taken from the Moorish Sultanate and Kingdom of Granada by the Catholic Monarchs.

Alhama de Granada is a picturesque little town only at about 50 km away from both the legendary town of Granada and the Mediterranean coast, in the south-eastern Spain. The town, perched atop a hill overlooking the gorge of the river Alhama, has a distinctive Moorish flavour. At a convenient distance from the town centre nestling in a poplar grove lining down the banks of the river (also known as Merchan) you will find a hot springs. Prehistoric remains found in the neighbourhood, show the antiquity oh the human settlements.

There are also clear evidences of the way Romans used the waters.In the 15th century, the Arabs consolidated the town next to these hot springs and they built there their baths. The strategic influence of Alhama de Granada made vital the fall, in 1492, of the Arab empire for the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada, which lead to the beginning of a flourishing age, because of the patronage of the Catholic Monarchs. The bath house in the Almohade style of the 12th century that is preserved in the SPA is a good example of Arab baths’ construction.

The magnificent horse shoe arcs were built over the remains of Roman construction and are covered by a vaulted roof, pierced by star-shaped openings that let the daylight filter in. Under the vaulted roof of the baths it bubbles up the oldest warm spring of Alhama de Granada. The newest one, which springs up a few metres from the other, was discovered in 1884, many centuries after a terrible earthquake whose epicentre could have been very near the area.

Alhama de Granada is also currently the site of the Rocket Festival.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Alhama_de_Granada