THE DEPARMENT FOR TOURISM, TRADE AND SPORT OF THE REGIONAL GOVERNMENT OF ANDALUSIA HAS NOW IMPLEMENTED ITS TOURISM PLAN FOR MEDIUM-SIZED TOWNS, WHICH WILL COVER SIX DIFFERENT BOROUGHS: ANTEQUERA (IN MALAGA PROVINCE), LOJA (GRANADA), ALCALA LA REAL (JAEN), LUCENA (CORDOBA) AND ECIJA AND ESTEPA (SEVILLA). THE GENERAL AIMS OF THIS INITIATIVE ARE TO ADD VALUE TO THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE OF THE TOWNS INVOLVED, TO STRENGTHEN AND INTEGRATE THEIR COMMERCIAL FABRIC, TO PROMOTE A NETWORK OF EMPLOYMENT AMONG THE TOWNS, TO CREATE NEW PRODUCTS IN THE TOURISM SECTOR AND TO RAISE AWARENESS OF THE CULTURE OF QUALITY TOURISM.

The capital of the plains, venerable and distinetive, born out of the hollow which surrounds and gave rise to the town, was from the very earliest days home to our ancestors, a settlement which attracted ancient prehistoric nomads to this fertile valley in which they found the perfect dwelling place.

From those early encampments, built four or five thousand years before Christ, significant remains still exist in the form of burial grounds and dolmens. Over time Antequera would then becomen Romanised, much more defined, and part of an excellent road network. Nonetheless, information about the town of Antikaria is vague and imprecise until the 16th century.
The Arabs renamed it Medina Antecaria and, as in other places, opened up a bright, new era of progress which would end only with the fall of the Omeya dysnaty of Córdoba. With the reconquest, the town took on enormous strategic importance, becoming a front´line fortress. As early as the 16th century, it was already seen as one of the most important towns in southern Spain. Its greatness was defined not only in financial and human terms, but could likewise be seen in the field of culture and the arts. It was at this point, we might say, that Monumental Antequera was born; a town of indisputable aristocratic and religious importance.

Today's Antequera is now going through a phase of considerable expansion thanks to the modernisation of its agriculture and the introduction of a dynamic industrial sector which promises to return this ancient city to the status it deserves.

Crossroads of cultures.
Antequera is one of those Spanish towns which was destined to be a crossroads of cultures; a place where mankind, since time immemorial, has inhabited this broan valley. The first evidence we encounter of early cultures comes in the perfectly preserved megalithic tombs of the dolmens of Menga, Viera and Romeral, dating from 2500, 2000 and 1800 BC.
Roman culture is splendidly represented in the Ephebos of Antequera, moulded in bronze along Greco-Roman aesthetic lines, a symbol of beauty and the eternal mixture of peoples and ways of life. Other remains, too, from Roman times can be visited, such as those at Singilia Barba, four miles from the town. Later on the Moors, under the command of Abdelaziz ben Muza, moved into the plains, driving out the Goths, and there remain many of the buildings, walls and fortresses built by the Muslim settlers to protect Medina Antecaria, which establiched itself as one of the military border strongholds of Al-Andalus. The Alcazaba and the ancient gateways to the fortress represent the most prominent evidence in stone of this era.

From the 16th century until the 18th, Antequera experienced its glory days. It is from this period that the many churches, chapels, hermitages, convents, manor houses and aristocratic residences date, and which give the town centre its current form, scattered throughout with religious sites and symbols. This is the Antequera of the Baroque Renaissance, as Gerardo Diego called it "the city of white, rococo churches" with their ornate plasterwork. There are numerous examples of this style, but perhaps the most noteworthy are the collegiate churches of Santa María la Mayor and San Sebastián, the Convent of the Incarnation, the Palacio de Nájera (now the Municipal Museum), the Convent of San José, the Gate of Granada, the Archway of the Giants (built over an ancient Nazarí gateway)...
The truth is that all Antequera is a living monument, a vast museum which takes visitors back to prehistoric eras, to times of cohabitation and conflict between civilisations. A jigsaw puzzle of civilisations and cultural currents all merging in a single place.