MORAYMA, THE LAST MOORISH QUEEN AND THE BEAUTIFUL LECRIN VALLEY, A PARADISE FROZEN IN TIME

When Muslims arrived, in the seventh century, to a country called “Hispania”, attracted by rumours of riches and treasures, they discovered a fertile paradise valley, located in a basin bordered by mountains. That place had everything they cherished: good soil, rivers that ran freely and the natural protection of their mountains, so they stayed there.

Captivated by its beauty, they called it The Lecrin Valley (or "Valley of Joy"). It was also known to the Arabs as "district of sugarcane", since this region was on the way to the sugar cane plantations of the coast of Granada.

In addition, in that valley people lived happily for a long time, until at the end of the fifteenth century, they went into exile in North Africa, expelled by the Catholic Monarchs in the Reconquer Wars.

More than five hundred years after this garden full of crops and fruits, still retains its Moorish essence. In this valley, a heady fragrance of orange blossoms and lemon trees scent the air in spring. In addition, old flourmills, Muslims castles, canals and charming cottages, spread  over this entire quiet and bright region. It also enjoys a real microclimate, where there is little rainfall.

The Lecrin Valley is just 25 minutes from Granada going to the north and if you take the opposite direction, you can get to the Tropical Coast. Within 40 minutes you can ski in the Sierra Nevada heading east. In addition, in less than an hour you can visit  the villages of the Alpujarra. Therefore, for all this, its situation is magnificent and privileged.

This land and the villages and people who live in them (there are 23 villages), still remains serene and beautiful, receiving each year thousands of visitors from around the world, who want to find the authenticity of the simple life where one has the impression that time has stopped there.

 

Their houses are whitewashed inside and out, with this typical whiteness of all Andalucia, with a closed structure and the houses attached to each other forming blocks that are separated by narrow lanes.

Besides being an ideal place for relaxation and rest, so is to live fully the nature performing a wide range of activities such as gliding, horseback riding, hiking through rivers and mountains, cycling or practicing birds watching. In addition, very close to the valley you can ski in Sierra Nevada, play golf or practise scuba diving, snorkelling or surfing in the nearby waters of the Mediterranean Sea.

You can also make many different cultural routes, visiting their mills, orchards and castles, as well as visiting local festivals or open-air markets of farmers and artisans, enjoying its art and gastronomy, among many other activities. Not to mention the nearby city of Granada,  where  so many attractions are offered, the first of which is the world famous Alhambra Palace.

And among all those Muslims castles, there is that of Mondújar, where the Nazaries Kings of Granada, were buried and where it is believed that the last burial which was held, was of Morayma, wife of Boabdil.

Morayma, the last Moorish queen, was born in Loja (west of Granada) and was the daughter of Aliatar, Boabdil’s partner in the struggles in which they participated. One day when he was returning from one of his daily battles their eyes met forever.

At 15 she married Boabdil, in a royal wedding with great pomp and joy, surely one of the few happy moments of his life. According to historians, she was a beautiful woman with big eyes and sweet face.

A few days after the wedding, Mulay Hacén (Boabdil’s father) imprisoned his son, separating him from his young wife and locking her in a Carmen (house with garden and orchard) in Granada. For years he was a woman abandoned by her husband's ongoing battles and had to bear a life of constant confinement, away from her husband and her two sons (Ahmed and Yusuf), kidnapped by the Catholic Monarchs during 9 years, in return to release Boabdil, until capitulations signed by Boabdil took place.

Meanwhile all of this happened, Morayma lived with her mother in law, Aixa, a resentful and spiteful woman, due to the neglect of her husband, who fell into the arms of his new favourite, Zoraida (a Christian woman named Isabel de Solis) who would become his second wife. For this reason, Aixa was constantly encouraging his son to fight against his father.

It is said that one day Morayma consulted a wise astrologer, very famous in the kingdom, about the horoscope of King Boabdil. And the old man replied: "The stars say that the last Mazarin King will live long but also he will suffer a lot".

When she was 26 years old, shortly before her husband went into exile in Fez (Morocco), she died. She was buried in the village of Mondujar, along with the other nazaries kings. Her body was placed on the ground facing The Mecca, fulfilling her wishes, since Morayma was a very pious woman.

Surely Boabdil loved her loyal and faithful wife very much, since after leaving for the exile he never got married again. 

It is very paradoxical that this queen, whose life was not nearly as sweet as a fairy tale, it is finally resting somewhere in the beautiful  “Valley of Joy”, a place where Muslims were captivated and enthralled for centuries. And when you visit it some time, then you will realise and understand why .....

THE 15 MOST BEAUTIFUL VILLAGES IN SPAIN

A few days ago a website specializing in tourism "TripAdvisor" conducted a survey of its readers to make a list of the 15 most beautiful villages in Spain and the result of this particular ranking was published in Travel,  a national magazine considered one of the most prestigious publications in its field on the Internet.

Users not only  have rated the beauty of the locations selected and its rich artistic heritage, but also they have valued their preferences for hotels, restaurants and services.

And these are the 15 most voted villages as they have appeared in the ranking:

1) Ronda (Malaga)

2) Vejer de la Frontera (Cadiz)

3) Cangas de Onis (Asturias)

4) Altea (Alicante)

5) Albarracin (Teruel)

6) Ubeda (Jaen)

7) Hervas (Caceres)

8) Cudillero (Asturias)

9) Priego (Cordoba)

10) Laguardia (Alava)

11) Alquezar (Huesca)

12) Hondarribia (Guipuzcoa)

13) Chinchon (Madrid)

14) Ribadesella (Asturias)

15) Alcalá de Henares (Madrid)

Because of their medieval air, of bordering the Mediterranean or the Cantabrian Sea, of being isolated in the mountains..... all of them are very good reasons to have received the votes of the TripAdvisor users, to be considered and selected as the most beautiful villages in Spain.

Among these fifteen locations highlighted by the magazine Travel, four are Andalusian (Ronda, Vejer de la Frontera,Úbeda and Priego), three are from Asturias (Cudillero,Cangas de Onis and Ribadesella), two from Aragón (Albarracin and Alquézar), and two are in Madrid (Chinchon and Alcala de Henares), completing the list with Altea (un Valencia district), Hervas (Extremadura), La Guardia (La Rioja) and Hondarribia (Basque Country).

And as it usually happens, the question with such rankings is: Are all of them the nicest villages in Spain? Are the nicest villages in Spain on that list? For instance, I wonder why there are not any villages from the Canary Islands or from Catalonian. So, definitevely, I should say: no, they are not, because it is always very hard to choose in a short list the best of anything, for me it is simply impossible. In fact, as for myself, I would add villages as: Torla (Huesca), Tossa de Mar (Gerona), Sanjenjo (Pontevedra), Cadaques or Besalú (Gerona), la Alberca (Salamanca), Frias (Burgos), ....... and many more indeed.

But anyway, what it is certain is that any of these 15 villages are worth visiting them, if you haven’t visited them yet!

EUGENIA DE MONTIJO, THE SPANISH EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH

Legend says that that Eugenia was born in the middle of an earthquake, and that she was brought up among bohemian, prostitutes, lenders, bandits, dukes and beggars. Eugenia was born in Granada, where she spent the first four years of her life, then moved with her family to Madrid.

Maria Eugenia was actually Baroness Countess of Teba and her older sister, Francisca de Sales, the real Countess of Montijo. Francisca was a brown-haired person whose sweet nature and spiritual calm contrasted with that of her sister, one-year younger, reddish hair, vivacious and confident. Both sisters were very beautiful. If the goal of the two daughters of Count de Montijo had been marrying well, they both got indeed. The eldest daughter married the Duke of Alba and the youngest became Empress of France.

After a few years, their mother Maria Manuela Kirkpatrick (of Scottish descent), decided to move with her children to Paris, alternating with brief stays in Madrid, England and Granada. By the way, it is said that Prosper Merimée wrote the famous opera “Carmen” based upon Manuela.

The Duke of Alba for some time was torn between Francisca and Eugenia, but finally settled on the first. It was written that Eugenia was so upset by the election, that she poisoned the milk diluted with matches to kill herself. It was her first love disappointment of her life and shortly after this disappointment would be followed by another, perhaps not so impetuous, but appeared to leave a deeper mark. Since then, in love relationships Eugenia ruled a coldness and prevention feeling. She was not going back to trust any man. Not even her future husband.

It seems that the meeting between Eugenia and Napoleon III was not casual. According to sources, they met through her mother, who wanted a good match for her two daughters. At 27 Eugenia had a reputation of being adventurous, ambitious and unscrupulous. The beauty of the young grenadine aristocrat enchanted the future emperor of France, Louis Napoleon.

It is said that Napoleon went crazy about Eugenia, who to inflame him, used a tactic as old as effective: to deny him her virginity. The courtship lasted two years.

In addition, if it is true the story that is told, the future emperor had to be stopped in their carnal cravings by young Andalusian. In one of the first meetings, he asked her where the way to her bedroom was and she replied him emphatically, but with her best smile: “through the Church”. Whether this story is or it is not certain, the situation would explain fully the moral behaviour of each of them. Louis Napoleon, after his marriage, kept public infidelities with several lovers, while Eugenia, quite a conservative Catholic, had close relations with Rome and financially protected several religious communities.

Although the desire for Eugenia was extinguished after a wedding night as wild as disappointing, Napoleon the Little, as Victor Hugo called him, was diagnosed by his doctor as "a tortured man in the flesh." They say that he slept with so many women who had to design for him a special chair to have sex.

He was unfaithful just right from the wedding trip, although it seems that it did not affect Eugenia  too much, since she did not love him. She married him only to be empress. And his love affairs suited her in order to let her to take active part in politics, giving ideas to turn Paris into the City of Light, supporting the establishment of an empire in Mexico, financing the opening of the Suez Canal, whose pomp on this occasion were very important, including representation for the first time on the banks of the Nile, Verdi's famous opera “Aida”.

She was the first woman to be granted with the Legion of Honour; in fact, she was the most decorated person in all France, with 20 medals and many titles.

She advocated for women's suffrage and humanistic ideas, but also invented the decorative style Napoleon III, discovered the great couturier Worth and dictated fashion for decades, devised crinoline, perfume, large mounted stones, necklaces.... She invented colours, furniture, food and makeup tried. Her dresses were imitated throughout Europe.

She was a great traveller who spoke several languages ​​and chatted with intellectuals and Gypsies. She was the first woman who went to a gym and learned boxing.

In addition, thanks to her, summers in Biarritz became very popular and the centre of European nobility. She and her husband built the palace on the beach now known as Hotel du Palais.

She had a rebellious, energetic and eccentric character, and also she was smart, intriguing, cocky and ambitious.

In 1879, her only son, the Prince Imperial, died in the war against the Zulus. Afterwards, Eugenia de Montijo, widowed and alone, lived in England, thought making frequent trips to Spain. On one of these trips, in 1920, at the age of 94 years, she died in Madrid. She was buried in the imperial crypt of the Abbey of Saint Michael in Farnborough (England), next to her husband and her son.

There is a story, told by Eugenia herself, which must have left her a deep shock. It happened in Granada, an evening that she went up to Sacromonte, some gypsies harassed her and several of her companions for  begging. One of the gypsies wanted to read the hand to her. Her nurse did not let her but she insisted by saying: "Although you don’t show me your hand, I know that this child will be more than a queen." These words were engraved in her mind.

And some years later, at a party in Paris, Abbe Boudinet, a renowned palm reader, insisted on reading the lines of Eugenia’s hand and then he said, amazed: "I saw in her right hand one imperial crown!".

An exciting life, not very happy, but very exciting, no doubt .......

Sources:

www.ctv.es

www.ideal.es

www.farodevigo.es

mujeresdeleyenda.blogspot.com

Book “Pasión Imperial”, written by Pilar Eyre