The visitor should get his camera or video recorder ready and be prepared to shoot film like it it’s going out of style because this village he is coming to, presents one picture postcard scene after another. He won’t be able to resist the temptation to take home images of one of the villages that best preserves the traditional Andalusian character, without those additions and creations that are sometimes used to try to recreate what never existed.

This municipality’s territory penetrates the Ronda region in the Alcaparaín (1,200 metres) and Prieta (1,521 metres) mountain ranges and approaches the River Turón. The terrain decreases in elevation towards the central part of the territory, where olive groves and grain fields abound, while in the environs of the village the effects of man’s efforts can be seen to contour the land and form terraces that yield fruits and vegetables.

Aside from a few Neolithic relics that attest to the presence of prehistoric man within the boundaries of Casarabonela, the most important ancient remains are from the Roman era. Every indication is that the first settlement in this place was founded by the Romans, who called it Castra Vinaria, but this theory, credible though it is, has yet to be proven. Nevertheless, there are remnants of the roads that linked Casarabonela with Málaga and Ronda, and it is a known fact that when Rome built a road the towns that it ran through were important or useful, if not both.

The Arabs, who never wasted an existing defensive structure, extended and reinforced the old Roman fortress, and they must have done it with such skill that it was the very last fortress to fall to the Christian troops during their battles in this region of al-Andalus. It was also the Arabs who, from the original Roman name, derived Csar Bonaira (Palace of Bonaira), which the Christians changed into Casarabonela at the beginning of the sixteenth century.

After the village was conquered and the Moors were expelled after their armed uprising, the territory of Casarabonela was divided between arrivals from Extremadura and other parts of Andalusia. In 1574 Felipe II conferred upon it the status of villa (royal burgh), as is recorded in a document that is preserved in the municipal archives.

Monuments

The Santiago Church, ruins of the Arabic castle, the Veracruz hermitage, Molino de los Mizos (Los Mizos Mill), and the Los Villares archaeological site.

How to Get There

The more advisable of the two access routes to Casarabonela from the Costa del Sol is by the A-357 from the city of Málaga to Ardales. In that village take the MA-446, and after travelling about 12 kilometres turn onto the MA-445, which leads to Casarabonela. The other route leaves the A-7 (N-340) expressway on the section between the airport and Torremolinos. the A-366, in the direction of Coín, will take you to Alozaina, and there you must take the A-6208 on to Casarabonela.