Ayuntamiento de Campillos
Avenida Santa Mª del Reposo, 4
29320 Campillos, Málaga
Telephone: 952-722-168 www.campillos.es
About The Area
This peaceful little town of less than 8000 inhabitants, equidistant
between the Costa del Sol, Granada and Sevilla, has been an important
cattle farming, leather production and mining centre since Roman
times. Archaeological digs in the vicinity have uncovered Roman
architecture and coins, as well as brass busts of Octavius, Claudius,
Constantine and Trajan. Nowadays, however, it is mainly known
as one of the key stops on the Algeciras-Granada rail line.
Drivers,
who will reach it 30km from Antequera on the N342 which continues
on to Olvera, Arcos de la Frontera and Jerez de la Frontera, will
also find it a worthwhile diversion to see the flocks of brilliant
pink flamingos that, in season, nest in the nearby La Fuente de
la Piedra ('fountain of stone') waterlands. Like much of Andalucía, its post-Roman
history followed the familiar pattern of Visigothic and Arabic
invasion. It fell to the Christian forces relatively early in
the Reconquest, in 1324, when the town was almost totally destroyed.
It was considered sufficiently important to both Arabs and Christians
to have been the subject of several fierce battles, notably in
1237 between the army of Mohamed Alhamar, Moorish king of Granada,
and rebels from Campillos and nearby Loja. After the fall of Granada
in 1492, it was rebuilt and resettled by farmers and coal workers
from Osuna and Teba.
The most important monument in Campillos is
its central Iglesia Parroquial Nuestra Señora del Reposo,
the parish church of our lady of rest, which is just off the town's
plaza central. The impressive bell tower was built by Fray (father)
Miguel de Santísimo Sacramento in the 16th century. Its
chief architectural style is Doric, with two stone facades, one
Doric, the other baroque. The main altar in the church features a pine
tabernacle with eight columns 'jónicas', that is, of the
Ionian or Ionic school of architecture, with the familiar fluted
columns and elaborate capitals of classical Greek architecture.
Also worth seeing is the Ermita de San Benito,
the town's patron saint. The saint's modest hermitage was built
between 1578-1569 although the building seen today was extensively
rebuilt in 1756 and 1814.
The vestiges of the town's Arab castle,
el Castillo de Gobantes, loom over the centre.
The Fuente de las Piedras is in fact only one
of more than half a dozen of lagoons in the surrounding countryside.
Even at 540m above sea level, these are salt water lakes, one,
the Laguna Salada, is a gigantic salt pan where salt has been
harvested for hundreds of years.
The most important fiesta is the one celebrating
patron saint San Benito Abad, which is held on July 10-11 every
year. The town's summer feria happens every first fortnight of
August.
The local speciality is Porra Campillera, a
dryish soup or stew with tuna, eggs and ham, similar to another,
better known, regional speciality, salmoreja, which uses oranges,
fried fish, cod and tuna. Peasant specialities using garbanzos
are also popular.
