El Borge

More Information About El Borge

Famous People From El Borge

El Bizco de El Borge, more than being just a picturesque folk figure, is one of the personages most linked to the recent history of this locality. He is without a doubt one of the most famous Málaga bandits. In the late nineteenth century, he held the Civil Guard at bay in La Axarquía and the Sierra Morena range, where he operated in the last third of the century. A colonel of that corps described him as "a wicked man capable of the most extreme cruelties". It is true that he was the bandit who inflicted the most casualties on the Civil Guard, but popular tradition refers to him as the classic generous outlaw. He was born in El Borge in 1837, and died at the hands of the Civil Guard at El Cortijo Grande in Lucena (Córdoba) in 1889.

If, in the opinion of some historians, history repeats itself, the same is true of legends. In El Borge it is said that a neighbouring village wanted to carry the image of the patron saint of El Borge, San Gabriel, to their church. They were unable to accomplish this because the figure of the saint increased in weight the farther away it got from its original temple, forcing its "kidnappers" to abandon it without achieving their purpose.

Another legend refers to the origin of the name of Santo Pitar Mountain, which actually belongs to the municipality of Málaga but adjoins El Borge. It is said that a Muslim dervish lived on the summit of the mountain who each day blew a conch shell to call the people to prayers, and that when they heard it the people would say, "El santo pita" ("The saint is whistling". The legend of the name has another version that is less devout and more historically based. The name of the mountain, according to some students, comes from the Mozaribic Sanctu Petru (San Pedro), which evolved into Sant Bitar and finally took the Spanish form of Santo Pitar.