In the province of Granada, within Andalusia, there is a small town called Moclin which today has around 240 inhabitants, only in the town, since in the entire town, the municipality, it reaches 3600.
let's see today what can we see and do in Moclín.
Moclín and its attractions
As we said at the beginning, Moclín is a municipality and locality Spanish within the autonomous community of Andalusia, in Granada. It is located in turn at the eastern end of the region of Loja.
In addition to the town of Moclín within the municipality there are other towns, seven in total, with Moclín being the fifth in number of inhabitants. The truth is that there are not many tourist attractions here, but you know, in any corner of Spain there are interesting things to see and do, so it's a matter of finding out which ones.
The most interesting thing about Moclín is its castle. He moclin castle It was built in the middle of the XNUMXth century to se defense of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, on a previous construction, as a permanent lookout. The kingdom of Nazarí, emirate or sultanate of Granada, was a Muslim state that existed here in the Middle Ages.
The town was, at that time, a fortified town, and the castle was its heart. Moclin castle had two parts, the lower part was the villa itself surrounded in turn by a masonry wall built with rubble (gravel, gravel, gravel), and reinforced with ashlars and crenellations, with a large tower that served as a door, double memorial, with the Church of the Encarnación inside , among other buildings.
For its part, in the second section was the castle or fortress itself, doubly walled. The outer wall was made of masonry and the second was made of mud, a wall of kneaded earth, compacted with blows. Inside there are two cisterns, one very well preserved today and the other quite dilapidated.
The border castle between Granada and Castile It was heavily besieged throughout its history until it fell into the hands of the Catholic Monarchs in 1486.. Its plant is irregular and adapts to the terrain, in the highest part of the environment, at more than a thousand meters of altitude. In 1931 it was declared a historic-artistic monument and is of A Cultural, being a Monument. you can do the tour, in groups of eight people or more, for 2 euros. The entrance includes the castle, the entrance to the Tower-door and the Museum of Regional Interpretation.
Unfortunately, there are no more outstanding ruins left, but in the landscape of Moclín you can still see watchtowers to control the accesses of those that still five remain: namely the Watchtower of La Porqueriza, the Watchtower of La Mesa, the Watchtower of Mongoandrés, the Watchtower of La Solana and the Torre de la Gallina.
Are you interested in visiting these towers: Aim, then: the Mingoandrés Tower is near Puerto Lope and you access it by a track, from the highway to Alcalá la Real. It is round, with masonry, and is more or less well preserved. La Torre de la Porqueriza is near Tózar, on a limestone hill, on the road from Tózar to Moclín. It is also round and has a flat window in the upper third.
The watchtower of La Solana is another of these optical towers, this time located in the town of Puerto Lope. Its location was very important because, being at the end of the Puerto Lope pass, it was the essential checkpoint on the main road from Alcalá la Real, on the border with Castilla, as well as offering a great view of the other towers. The last ones that remain to be named are the tower of La Solana, from the 1970th century and on a platform, and the Torre de la Gallina, absolutely in ruins today due to a fierce electrical storm in XNUMX.
Beyond the towers that They were part of the medieval defense systemWhat can we see in the town of Moclín? Within the urbanization we can visit the hermitage of San Antón, inside the castle itself and built on an old mosque, the Parish Church of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación and the Pósito de Bread, from the XNUMXth century.
La Parish Church of the Incarnation It was ordered to be built on top of a mosque by order of the Catholic Monarchs. The main chapel is from the mid-XNUMXth century, by Martín de Bolívar, but the Civil War has left it quite destroyed. Inside the church there is a painting of Christ of the Cloth, which only appears in the pilgrimages and to whom favors are asked by passing a cloth. Because of this painting, the church is also known as the Church of Christ of Cloth.
El anthropological museum It stands where the Hermitage of San Sebastián used to be and was created by Manuel Caba. Here there are many pieces of ethnography, but they coexist, for example, old mobile phones with prehistoric arrowheads. The museum offers an educational tour of its various collections: there are various measuring devices used in rural life, going through a Roman pillar from the Empress Eugenia's estate, table games, Arab ceramics and even a film collection.
You can also take a tour of the Regional Interpretation Center which works in the old civil guard barracks from 1954. It has an assembly hall and two rooms. One of them is dedicated to the Ibero-Roman culture with collections of ceramics and Roman coins; and another with a huge Roman mosaic of 40 square meters. Downstairs there is a collection from Prehistory and the Middle Ages, with replicas of Nasrid ceramics and from the Caliphate period.
Finally, on our list of what to see in Moclin, we can always enjoy geography in another way. Do you like climbing, for example? Here in Moclin there is a via ferrata very complete and fun that includes a Tibetan bridge, a monkey walk and a zip line, all in a tour of between two and three hours, with a guide.
Another option is to walk hikingFor example, following the Gollizno Route of just over 9 kilometers through the Velillos river canyon. Here the Tajos de la Hoz gorge is beautiful, halfway along the route. Also, under the castle of Moclín, you can see the trenches of the Civil War, dug by the national side.
I remind you that Moclín is 35 kilometers from the city of Granada, on the N432 road towards Córdoba. It's a rural tourism destination that will allow you to know the typical style of life in the south of Spain.
If you arrive on January 17th you will be able to witness the patron saint festivities of San Antón and October 5 is the pilgrimage of the Christ of the Cloth, in addition to the numerous cultural events that take place during the summer and the tasty local gastronomy such as patatas a lo pobre, gazpacho, lamb dishes or stew.