Ventas de Zafarraya is a village in the municipality of

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 thermal baths located there, which are called ''al-hammah'' in Arabic. History There is clear evidence that the ...

, Granada, Spain. It is just north of a mountain pass between spurs of the

Sierra de Alhama Sierra de Alhama is a mountain range of the Penibaetic System in Málaga and Granada provinces, Andalusia, Spain. Its highest point is the 1,500 m high Pico de la Torca. Other notable summits are Hoyo del Toro, 1,353 m, Cerro de Marchamonas, ...

to the west and the

Sierra de Tejeda Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...

to the east, on the main road from

Vélez-Málaga Vélez-Málaga () is a municipality and the capital of the Axarquía comarca in the province of Málaga, in the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the most important city in the comarca. Locally it is referred to as Vélez. Vélez- ...

to Alhama de Granada. The village was destroyed by an earthquake in 1884, but was rebuilt.

Location

Ventas de Zafarraya is in the municipality of

, Granada, Spain. It has an area of and is at an elevation of . As of 2019 the population was 1,181. The postal code is 18125. The village is on the road from Alhama de Granada in the west of Granada to Vélez-Málaga in the Axarquía of Malaga. Due to its location on this important route the population grew quickly in the second half of the 20th century.

History

The 40,000 year old bones of a Neanderthal man have been found in the Boquete de Zafarraya cave in

Alcaucín Alcaucin () is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, part of the autonomous community of Andalusia in southern Spain. It borders with the province of Granada. The municipality is situated approximately 54 kilometers to the city of M� ...

, in a spur of the Sierra de Alhama just west of the Sierra de Tejeda. The first historical settlement dates to the

Visigothic The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is kno ...

period of the 6th century A.D., and is known from sites discovered in the center of the village. The name "Zafarraya" is from the Arabic ''Manzil Fahs Rayya''. During the

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

period the plain was administered from the town of Zalia, since destroyed. After Zalia was taken by the Christians, for centuries the grazing lands of the plain of Zafarraya were the subject of dispute between the municipalities of Alhama de Granada and

. Ventas del Llano de Zafarraya began as a market in the Boquete beside the royal highway from Granada to Málaga. In 1833 it was transferred from the province of Málaga to Granada. In 1842 Ventas de Zafarraya became a municipality. The

Andalusian earthquake of 25 December 1884 The 1884 Granadan earthquake ( es, Terremoto de Granada de 1884) occurred on 25 December 1884 at 9:08 p.m in the south of Spain, and had an estimated magnitude of 6.7 . It shook a poor region where many of the houses were built without foundations ...

had an estimated magnitude of 6.5. There were 745 deaths, and the villages of

Arenas del Rey Arenas del Rey is a village located in the province of Granada, Spain. According to the 2006 census (INE), the city had a population of 1,231 inhabitants. The village is just north of the Sierras of Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama Natural Park The ...

, Ventas de Zafarraya and

were almost completely destroyed. The epicenter was on the northern side of the

near Ventas de Zefarraya, with a focus deep. The pioneering geologist José Macpherson y Hemas (1839–1902) explained the earthquake as having been caused by movement along the faults that bound the Tejeda / Almijara massif to the north and south. Others thought the cause might have been the collapse of underground cavities. 74 people died in Ventas de Zafarraya. The village was rebuilt almost entirely with money from Cuba, at that time a colony of Spain, and the village became known as "New Havana". The railway reached the village in August 1922 from Vélez-Málaga. It was meant to continue to Alhama de Granada, but got no further than Ventas de Zafarraya. It was a

rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with ...

so it could climb the slopes to the Boquete at above sea level. A tourist hotel was built below the station, which gave a great boost to the local economy. However, as road transport became more efficient the line became unprofitable and was closed on 12 May 1960. In 1975 the municipality of Ventas de Zafarraya was absorbed by the municipality of Alhama de Granada.

Notes

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ventas de Zafarraya Populated places in the Province of Granada