Surface Area: 810 square kilometres
Population: 45,037
What the natives are called: Antequeranos
Monuments: Renaissance fountain; the Colegiata de San Sebastián (Collegiate Church of Saint Sebastian); La Encarnación convent; Museo Municipal Palacio de Nájera (Municipal Museum); San José convent; Museo Conventual de las Descalzas (Convent Museum); the palace of the Marqueses de la Peña de los Enamorados; La Victoria convent; Santa Eufemia convent; church of Santiago; Belén convent; Puerta de Granada (Granada Gate); the dolmens of Menga and Viera; San Zoilo convent; Del Carmen church; the Real Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor (Royal Collegiate Church of the Great St. Mary); Arco de los Gigantes (Giants’ Arch); the Alcazaba fort; Torre del Homenaje (Tower of Homage); Puerta de Málaga (Málaga Gate); La Virgen del Socorro chapel; the churches of Santa María de Jesús and San Juan Bautista; the palace of the Marqueses de las Escolanías; the Santo Domingo church; Plaza de Toros (Bullring); Museo Taurino Municipal (Municipal Bullfight Museum); the San Agustín convent; Palacio Municipal (Municipal Palace); the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios convent; Paraje Natural El Torcal (El Torcal Nature Park). Antequera is one of the towns with the most monuments in all of Andalusia. 75 per cent of the historic and cultural heritage properties of Málaga are found in this municipality.
Geographical Location: in the centre of the region that bears its name, in the northern part of the province of Málaga and 45 kilometres from the capital of Málaga. It lies 577 meters above sea level, average annual rainfall is 550 litres per square metre and the average temperature is 15.3º C

Outstanding sights: Renaissance fountain; the Colegiata de San Sebastián (Collegiate Church of Saint Sebastian); La Encarnación convent; Museo Municipal Palacio de Nájera (Municipal Museum); San José convent; Museo Conventual de las Descalzas (Convent Museum); the palace of the Marqueses de la Peña de los Enamorados; La Victoria convent; Santa Eufemia convent; church of Santiago; Belén convent; Puerta de Granada (Granada Gate); the dolmens of Menga and Viera; San Zoilo convent; Del Carmen church; the Real Colegiata de Santa María la Mayor (Royal Collegiate Church of the Great St. Mary); Arco de los Gigantes (Giants’ Arch); the Alcazaba fort; Torre del Homenaje (Tower of Homage); Puerta de Málaga (Málaga Gate); La Virgen del Socorro chapel; the churches of Santa María de Jesús and San Juan Bautista; the palace of the Marqueses de las Escolanías; the Santo Domingo church; Plaza de Toros (Bullring); Museo Taurino Municipal (Municipal Bullfight Museum); the San Agustín convent; Palacio Municipal (Municipal Palace); the Nuestra Señora de los Remedios convent; Paraje Natural El Torcal (El Torcal Nature Park). Antequera is one of the towns with the most monuments in all of Andalusia. 75 per cent of the historic and cultural heritage properties of Málaga are found in this municipality.
Tourist Information: Tourism Office, Calle Encarnación nº 7 (29200). Telephone: (+34) 952 70 25 05 Fax: (+34) 952 70 25 05  E-mail: oficina.turismo@antequera.es

The very first thing the eye beholds as you start down towards the Antequera plains by way of the N-331 (A-45) expressway is a broad meadowland like an immense tapestry of different shades of green or ochre, depending on the season of your visit. To the right, the evocative Peña de los Enamorados (Lovers’ Rock) with its legend of a doomed romance; straight ahead, gentle hills hem in the meadows, and to the left, below the crest of the El Torcal massif, Christian towers and Arab walls stand out from the brilliant white of the town.

Were the space not so large, you might think what you see is an ingenious artistic illusion. Even at that, this dazzlingly panoramic initial view does not reveal the treasure of monumental sites contained in Antequera, where every corner reverberates with a thousand-year-old Mediterranean culture forged by all the western civilisations.

The first settlers in this region left archaeological testimony of immense importance: the dolmens of Viera, Menga and Romeral, gigantic burial structures erected in the Bronze Age.
Although there is no precise data on the subject, it is believed that from this date forward these lands were always populated, among other reasons because its geographic location –in the territorial centre of Andalusia- is the natural crossroads between upper and lower Andalusia, making it possible for Iberians, Tartessians, Phoenicians and Carthaginians to pass through and settle here. Traces of the latter, in fact, have been found at Cerro León, where it seems that the battle between Hasdrubal’s Carthaginians and the Roman legions took place.

The city owes its present name to the Romans. It derives from the ancient Antikaria, a name that would be retained by the Arabs who, under the command of Abdelaziz Ben Muza, conquered it in the eighth century. Many traces of the Roman era remain, both in Antequera proper and in the nearby towns of Arastepi and Singilia Barba, which are considered among the most important of Roman Málaga.
Bathhouses, villas, sculptures, ceramics, mosaics, and column shafts and capitals from the Roman period have been turning up throughout the Antequera area in recent years as clear proof of its ancient splendour.

The Arabs extended and strengthened the town, building the Alcazaba fort and surrounding the Medina with a wall. It became a strategic point after the capture of Seville and Jaén by the Christian troops who, under the command of the Infante (Crown Prince) Don Fernando, finally entered Antequera in 1410.

After being granted several royal favours, Antequera began to experience growth that would arrive at its peak in the second half of the sixteenth century and that in some ways was maintained until the eighteenth. During this long interval, the town was enriched with an extraordinary artistic heritage –primarily churches and convents but also outstanding secular structures- that is responsible for the present appearance of its historic urban centre.

An epidemic of yellow fever and the Napoleonic invasion decimated the town at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when it was already showing signs of exhaustion, but with those bad times behind it a new and vigorous middle class appeared, supported by a thriving textile industry, that gave new life to its economy and society. This powerful industrial sector was to succumb in the twentieth century and it would not be until the last third of this century that the town, now linked by a good transportation and communications network with the rest of Andalusia, again entered a period of clear economic expansion, and it is still in full swing.

How to Get There

The quickest way from Málaga to Antequera is by the N-331 (A-45) expressway. Once you arrive at the Antequera lowlands, take the A-354, and after 2 kilometres, you will enter the urban area of Antequera.