A Walk around Pampaneira

Pampaneira is the first of the three villages of the Poqueira gorge and the lowest, at the entrance to the valley. Its little streets climb steeply between whitewashed houses with Alpujarran chimneys and pass beneath tinaos. From the upper part of the village you see the Sierra Nevada peaks on one side and the gorge on the other. It belongs to the association of Los Pueblos más Bonitos de España (The Most Beautiful Villages of Spain).

What you will see

The centre is the Plaza de la Libertad, presided over by the parish church of Santa Cruz, from the 16th century. It has a rectangular plan and a Mudéjar coffered ceiling, and was built on an old mosque; its most unusual feature is that it mixes traits of Muslim art with Christian Renaissance. Beside the church is the San Antonio fountain, with a verse that promises a bride to the bachelor who drinks its water intending to marry.

From the square you go down to the lower district along Calle Verónica: on the left you will see a primitive tinao, a kind of porch over the house entrance, and a street with no layout, like a cobbled track that once gave access to the vegetable gardens. The lower district was the farmers' one, near the farmland; the upper one, the shepherds', beside the drove roads that climbed to the mountain pastures.

Continuing towards Calle Princesa the first tinao that covers a whole street appears, and going down Calle del Viso, almost at the end of the village, a weaving workshop heir to the old Granada silk industry, where jarapas are now woven from strips of old clothing. On leaving Calle Cristo for Calle Real is the Terrao de las Cámaras, one of the village's largest flat roof terraces, at the same level as the street, where public proclamations were read. The Paseo Federico García Lorca is a viewpoint with fountains and decorative chimneys.

How to do it

Leave the car in the municipal car park at the entrance, and walk up to the Plaza de la Libertad, where the information point is. From there, do the circuit along Verónica, Princesa and El Viso and return climbing towards the upper part: the village is small and is explored in an hour. The streets are steep and cobbled; wear comfortable shoes.

With children and with a dog

With children it is a short walk with a reward: the views from the top. With a dog, on a lead, you can walk all of it along the street.

What to combine

Pampaneira is the starting point of the Poqueira villages trail, which climbs to Bubión and Capileira. To eat, Casa Alfonso, the restaurant of the Hostal Pampaneira, is at the entrance to the village.