History

It is difficult to determine its origins although in the IX century about 20 castles were established to colonize the area of Marchena. From this period the irrigation network created by the Moslems for their lands which produced fruit, vegetables, privet, mulberry trees, cereals and grapes still remains.

With the Christian conquest, the Catholic Monarchs gave the whole area of Marchena to don Gutierre de Cardenas y Chacon in 1494, an estate that his son would convert into the duchy of Maqueda.

The War of the Alpujarras (1568-1570) was the end of a period of tension and successive rebellions. It ended with the expulsion of the Moors from the Kingdom of Granada and its repopulation in the year 1574 with 71 settlers from Mallorca, Valencia and Extremadura. During the XVI and XVII centuries the evolution of its population was very slow as in the middle of the XVIII century, according to the Official Land Registry (Catastro de Ensenada), it had only 146 inhabitants.

The XIX century began with the obtention of its municipal independence in the year 1835 with the abolition of the landed estates. In the second half of the century there was an increase in the economic activity and also in the population with the introduction of the cultivation of the Ohanes grape. It reached the point of having 1,621 inhabitants in the year 1887. With the decline of the "shipment" grape trade in the second decade of the XX century, a crisis was sparked which together with the Civil War and the postwar years provoked a serious decrease in both the population and the economic activity.

In the last few years its agriculture has become orientated towards the cultivation of citrus fruits; the "apinera" grape, the most in demand on the market; the olive, vegetables and fruit trees.