Bérchules

The municipality of Los Bérchules includes the villages of Alcútar and Bérchules and is located on the south face of the Natural Park of Sierra Nevada.

Famous for its fruits, wines and ham, it shares the typical features of all Alpujarra villages, i.e. a distinctive type of architecture in the buildings, adapted to the structure of the irregular landscape and to the climate of the area, which are arranged in narrow streets where the memory lingers of his Moorish past.

Nestled in the high mountains, visitors can enjoy here not only fantastic scenery but also ferruginous and carbonated water springs; a visit to the cave of Ibn Abuc is worth its while.

In the heart of the Alpujarra, a unique natural connection between the Mediterranean coast and Sierra Nevada, lie the highest peaks that tower the Peninsula, Bérchules is a place to visit as part of the Alpujarra route.

History

Its name derives from the Arab word Bercul , meaning "large garden".

The history of Bérchules runs in a parallel history to other villages in the Alpujarra, an area that, due to its geographical isolation, has always developed a culture of its own, which had its moment of splendour under the Arab Andalusian period when all of the Alpujarra was an important agricultural centre, specializing in silk production.

After the Christian re-conquest of Granada in 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs, the population suffered to an unbearable extreme and thus, in 1568, Hernando de Córdoba y Válor, a rich landowner proclaimed himself as Abén Humeya, uprising against Phillip ll, and causing a general revolt amongst the Moors from all over the kingdom of Granada. The Moorish leader took advantage of the steepness of the land in the mountain range north of Bérchules to provide refuge for his troops.

Internal disagreements amongst the Moors, who murdered Abén Humeya in 1569, allowed Don Juan de Austria to put an end to the revolt.

The Moors were eventually expelled in 1609.

The Alpujarra was later inhabited by peasants from Galicia, León, Asturias, Castile and other places in Andalusia

Bérchules had until recently a small industry of Alpujarra style rugs, being the hamlet of Tímar famous for home knitting-machines.