Page 483 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Spain

AND AL UCÍA  481

Ochavada built in French style,
but which also incorporates
traditional Andalucían features.
P Plaza de Toros
Carretera de Sevilla. Tel 952 70 81 42.
Open Tue–Sun. Museo Taurino:
Open Sat, Sun, public hols.
E Palacio de Nájera
Coso Viejo. Tel 952 70 83 00.
Open Tue–Sun. &

Weathered limestone formations in El Torcal
o El Torcal There are excellent views of
Antequera from the Torre del
Málaga. £ Antequera. @ Ante quera.
n Antequera, 952 70 25 05. Parque Papabellotas on the best-
Natural del Torcal: Tel 952 24 33 24. preserved part of the wall.
Open 10am–5pm daily (to 7pm Apr– In the town below, the 18th-
Sep). ∑ torcaldeantequera.com century Palacio de Nájera is
the setting for the Municipal
A massive exposed hump of Museum, the star exhibit of
limestone upland, which has which is a splendid Roman
been slowly weathered into bronze statue of a boy.
bizarre rock formations and The massive dolmens, just
caves, the Parque Natural del outside the town, are thought
Torcal is popular with hikers. to be the burial chambers of
Marked trails lead from a tribal leaders and date from
visitors’ centre. around 2500–2000 BC. Palacio del Marqués de la Gomera, in
The park is also a pleasure Osuna, completed in 1770
for natural historians, with fox Environs
and weasel populations, and Laguna de la Fuente de Piedra, a Osuna
colonies of eagles, hawks and north of Antequera, teems with Sevilla. * 17,500. £ @ n Calle
vultures, as well as rare plants bird life, including huge flocks of Sevilla 37, 954 81 57 32. ( Mon.
and flowers like wild orchids. flamingoes, which arrive to breed _ San Alcadio (12 Jan), Virgen de
after wintering in West Africa. la Consolación (8 Sep).
A road off the N334 leads to a
p Antequera lakeside viewing point. There Osuna was once a key Roman
is a visitors’ centre in Fuente de garrison town. It rose again to
Málaga. * 42,000. £ @ n Plaza
San Sebastián 7, 952 70 25 05. ( Tue. Piedra village. To the east, also off prominence in the 16th century
_ Ferias (end May & mid-Aug). the N334, is Archidona, with its under the Dukes of Osuna, who
∑ antequera.es 18th-century, octagonal Plaza wielded immense power. In
the 1530s they founded the
This busy market town was Colegiata de Santa María, a
strategically important first as grand church with a Baroque
Roman Anticaria and later as reredos and paintings by José
a Moorish border fortress de Ribera. This was followed in
defending Granada. 1548 by the University, a rather
Of its many churches, the severe building with a beautiful
Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del patio. Some fine mansions,
Carmen, with its vast Baroque among them the Palacio del
altarpiece, is not to be missed. At Marqués de la Gomera, also
the opposite end of the town is reflect the town’s former glory.
the 19th-century Plaza de Toros,
with a museum of bullfighting. Environs
The hilltop castle was built in To the east lies Estepa, whose
the 13th century on the site of modern-day fame rests on
a Roman fort. Visitors can walk its biscuits – polvorones and
round the castle walls by mantecados. The Iglesia del
approaching through the 16th- The triumphal, 16th-century Arco de los Carmen has a black and white,
century Arco de los Gigantes. Gigantes, Antequera Baroque façade.

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