El Burgo
Written by Geoff Forster
El Burgo: It was a beautiful day in late September, too good to stay in!
So We left Benarrabá and drove to Ronda. Then we took the A367 and then turned on to the MA477 - MA478 to El Burgo.
The MA478 is a twisting mountain road through pine forests, the views are spectacular. The road surface is pretty poor in places but the road is quiet and the stunning vistas make it very much worth doing.
There is a lot of new build housing around El Burgo.
The old part of town is in the centre of the photograph above. There are some factory units and some more new housing off shot to the right.
We parked at the bottom of the pueblo near the roundabout at the village entrance. There is a lovely statue in a small garden.
We passed some tiled information plaques. Plenty of information for visitors and in the right place.
The streets were quite busy, a number of noisy motorbikes buzzed passed us. The road split, we took the right ... up the hill.
The houses were mixed, some modernised on three floors others still original. Halfway up was a leather chair on the pavement. The hill was steep but we resisted having a rest!
This is looking back down..
At the top we arrived at a fountain roundabout where seven street converge.
Two of the streets. We walked down the left hand street. To the Iglesia de San Agostín.
The modern church is on the right.
At the bottom of the road we found the Ayuntamiento. (Town Hall)
Next to the Ayuntamiento were a couple of bars the shading made this a pleasant place to pass a few hours.
We did well to resist temptation and head up the street to some new concrete steps. although completely plain they were quite visually effective.
Looking back.
Near the top of the steps we passed a old Castillo Arabe. It has been renovated Spanish style with large quantities of render and is being used as a house.
The ironwork on the windows was unusual.
At the top of El Burgo is the Iglesia Nuestra Señora de la Encarnacion.
There are also some great views.
Jane is rewarded for her will power in passing the bars with some pure water from a pleasant tiled fuente.
We walked back down to Plaza Abajo. On the way we noticed a lot of graffiti. On roads and pavements. The plaza had also been sprayed.
Since our visit we've been sent some interesting information about the pavement graffiti. "... apparently it goes back to the days when the young men were all called up for National Service. The night before they would leave El Burgo, they would run around the village painting the names of those who were leaving on the pavements outside the houses in which they lived. It's a tradition which has been carried on and now once a year, on the night before the young men would have left, the teenagers go around the streets painting the names of their friends on the pavements, outside their houses. These days the paint is not supposed to be permanent, and apparently the ayuntamiento actually supplies it! A lot of it does wash away, but as this particular night takes place around March or April you can see that it's not quite as semi-permanent as it's supposed to be!" El Burgo has a market held on Wednesdays. We walked out of the pueblo along the A366 for a hundred metres to find the river.
The Rio Turón flows passed El Burgo. It wasn't quite dry.
Up stream a couple of horses and a mule were enjoying the late afternoon sunshine relaxing by the river.
The photographs flatter the river, the approaches and banks weren't that pretty.
Looking up to El Burgo from the river.
Looking back to El Burgo from the A366 road to Ronda.
We enjoyed our visit to El Burgo. It is in a beautiful area.
The housing is a mixture of old and new, reformed and original. On the drive home we saw a sign for Mirador del Guarda Forestal. We pulled into a shady are of bare earth in a pine forest. A stone stair took us up to the Mirador (Viewing Point).
The views are fantastic!
A really good statue of a man and boy has been placed on top of the highest outcrop.
El Burgo from the Mirador del Guarda Forestal.
The Mirador del Guarda Forestal is a stop well worth making if you are traveling along the A367 road to or from El Burgo.