Information, Hotels and Accommodation guide, Lanjaron, Alpujarras

Lanjaron and it's mountains. What is it like?

The town is very friendly, very spanish, and not as "touristy" as some of the other Alpujarras towns. The World Health Organization has recognized Lanjaron as one of the places with the greatest longevity on the planet.

It is indeed the quality of its waters - together with the climate, the pure mountain air and the Mediterranean diet - that allows many of its citizens to live more than one hundred years.

Introduction to Lanjaron

The Spa Baths have been the most important mineral-medicinal waters of Andalucia since the 18th century when its healing properties were discovered.

The town hall has an interesting website that provides useful information in both spanish and english.

We can provide details of clean comfortable accommodation in Lanjaron ranging from apartments to country villas and farmhouses. The town is well supplied with hotels. We use the Hotels Espana, Castillo, Central and Alcademia. All are very clean and comfortable. We can assist and advise with regard to choice.

Eat and Drink

Lanjaron is well supplied with small supermarkets and shops for all your "mountain needs". There are 3 banks with ATM's.

Bars:

Bar Flower - best tapas bar in town owned by Franci and Jeni
Bar Los Faroles - family run business good for breakfasts and lunches
El Volante - good drink, banter and food
Bistro 31 - More of a "Bistro" restaurant with great food including veggie options!
Cafe Bar Suizo - WiFi is available here too.
Gonzales Bodega - Good wine and tapas. Watch Real Madrid here at the weekends!
Bar Galvez - Traditional spanish bar with good tapas

The Lanjaron Festival of Water and Ham

Since 1980, Lanjaron has celebrated Midsummer's Eve in honour of San Juan Bautista (John the Baptist) with its Fiesta del Agua y del Jamon (Water and Ham Festival), although the ham aspect has been overshadowed over the years by the liquid element. At the stroke of midnight on 23 June, the small mountain village erupts into the greatest water fight in Spain, and maybe even the world.

Famous for its mineral water, Lanjaron is the perfect destination for this crazy water war. Locals make sure they park their cars out of town in anticpation of the liquid onslaught that attracts revellers from all over the country and further afield.

At midnight, participants take to the streets armed with buckets, water pistols, and anything else they can get their hands on. Total strangers soak each other to the skin, while ladies spray the crowd with hose pipes from the safety of their balconies, filling up their buckets in the process.

By the time the whistle blows at the end of the fight, there is a river running through the streets, and all are soaked to the bone. After a quick change of clothes, the cerveza starts pouring, fireworks fill the sky and the real party begins. Over the next few days, revellers celebrate the calm after the storm with a feast of mouthwatering jamon (ham), another product for which Lanjaron is renowned.

The Moorish Castle of Lanjaron

Only its ruins remain over a rocky promontory near to the town. It is located about 600 meters of altitude. Its location was superb, because it dominated, on one hand, the access road to the Alpujarra and, on the other, the one that communicated Granada with the Coast.

The castle was surrounded by a wall defended by two great towers of rubblework, one to the north, semi-circular, and another one to the south.

Fernando the Catholic King conquered the town in 1490. Its Moorish inhabitants rebelled again in 1500, a revolt that was controlled by the Christians after an epic defence. The captain who defended the place preferred to throw himself from a tower before surrender.

It participated in an active way against the Napoleonic troops in the Independence War, its inhabitants receiving the qualifying name of “canoneros” since then. The castle is currently being rennovated