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Periana Town |
Nestling in the Mountains above Velez Malaga on the Eastern Costa del Sol and just 35 minutes from Malaga City - Periana is one of the best kept secrets in Spain. The town is beautiful, extremely well kept and with a sense of community that was last seen in the rest of the Costa del Sol about forty years ago. The people are so friendly that sometimes we get sore faces from all the smiling and “Holas” from the passers-by. Our only problem about promoting the town is that we really don’t want too many people knowing about it…… Only Joking!
Fiestas
The devotion to San Isidro in many villages in Malaga is quite well known, especially in those whose economies are based on agriculture, as is the case with Periana where the saint is also the patron saint of the village.
The fiestas in honour of San Isidro therefore take on special importance in Periana, which around 15 May dedicates five days of intensive activity to him: sports competitions, folklore performances, bullfights, verbenas (traditional street parties), fireworks displays, street celebrations, etc., and above all the Festival Flamenco de la Alta Axarquía (Flamenco Festival of Upper Axarquía).
The religious part of the fiesta is provided by the saint’s procession through the streets on 15 May.
Along the route, the throne bearers bring the image close to the balconies of the houses, and the villagers take advantage of this moment to use a type of spout to hurl wheat at San Isidro to show thanks for the harvest.
The amount of wheat offered to the saint varies from one year to the next, but the offering has never been less than 20,000 kilos.
The Día del Aceite Verdial (Verdial Olive Oil Day) in late March is a newly created festival intended to publicise the extraordinary olive oil that is extracted from the verdial olive in Periana.
The Feria del Melocotón (Peach Fair) no longer has the purpose of making this exquisite Periana fruit known, it is rather in recognition of a product that is exported to all areas due to its unquestionable quality. The peach (melocotón) seems to have been introduced to Periana by a villager called “El Rojo” (The Red), who brought it from Argentina more than 150 years ago. Little by little the “durazno”, as it was known as at that time, created a niche in the markets of the adjacent villages until it became generally known, first in the province of Malaga and then outside it.
During the fiesta, which is held on the third weekend in August, thousands of people will be treated to lodgings that are at par with blackpool hotels. Visitors often come to the village and are presented not only with peaches by the villagers but also with other typical local products, usually accompanied by the appropriate beverage.
Food
Migas (a dish made from fried bread crumbs), sopa cachorreña (a soup made with tart oranges), gazpachuelo (a fish soup) and ensaladilla cateta (a salad containing potatoes, tuna fish, olive oil and vinegar) can be listed among this municipality’s most traditional dishes, but it is essential to make prominent mention of parpuchas, which are omelettes of shredded codfish with gaches de harina (a kind of soup made with flour and spices), and which are eaten after being dipped in sugarcane syrup.
The guiso de Semana Santa (Holy Week stew) is similar to potajo de garbanzos con tagarninas (chickpea stew with Spanish oyster plant), a dish that also may be eaten during the Christmas season.
As for confectionery, tortas de aceite (olive oil cakes) are, without a doubt, worthy of the highest recommendation.
How to get there:
Turn off the Mediterranean Expressway (A-7; N-340) onto the A.335 as though going to Vélez, but without entering that village, continue on the same road towards Alhama de Granada. Upon arrival at El Cruce turn onto the A-6118, which leads to Periana.
Tourist information:
Town Hall, Plaza de Andalucía, 1 (29710). Telephone: 952 536 167; Fax: 952 536 276.
Website: Periana Town
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