Trevélez, the Ham Village

Trevélez lies east of the Poqueira gorge, at the head of its own valley, at the foot of Mulhacén and inside the Sierra Nevada National Park. It has about 900 inhabitants and is spread over stepped districts, lower, middle and upper, joined by slopes, with the white flat-roofed terrao houses and the narrow, cobbled streets of the Berber-origin architecture of the Alpujarra. It is, above all, the ham village.

The queen's seal

Trevélez ham has been cured here for centuries with techniques passed from generation to generation. In 1862 Queen Isabella II granted a royal seal to mark the hams of the area. The natural thing on a visit is to buy ham at one of the village's curing sheds or shops and taste it in a bar or at the table.

From the lower district to the upper

The visit is a walk of an hour and a half, climbing from the lower district to the upper along sloping streets, with views of the Trevélez river valley and the peaks. The interest lies in the village as a whole. Wear comfortable shoes, because you climb a lot.

How to get there without getting lost

From Capileira it is about 35 minutes by winding road; there is also an Alsa bus between the two villages, with the timetables on the sheet for the bus from Granada. Inside the village, do not follow the GPS: the village's hotels warn that it sends you down dead ends and alleys where you cannot manoeuvre. Leave the car in the public car park at the entrance and walk up; in two minutes you are in the centre.

Eating and staying

In the village, the La Fragua restaurant cooks Alpujarran dishes with vegetables from its own garden, and the La Fragua hotel has two houses a minute from each other. Trevélez is also the starting point for walking routes to Mulhacén and the lakes of the south face; from the Poqueira, the climb up Mulhacén from Capileira uses the park minibus. The Sunday in Capileira and Trevélez links the two villages in one day.