Are you thinking about a short trip and you don’t know what to see in Antequera? ✅ We tell you what not to miss if you choose to visit this town and we give you all the tips so you can enjoy the best of it.
HOW TO REACH ANTEQUERA?
Antequera is known as ‘the heart of Andalusia’ as it is located in the geographical centre of the region, to the north of Malaga province. This makes of it a place perfectly communicated.
It has a bus station that connect it to the main destinations in Andalusia and a train station where you can pick local trains and high-speed ones linking Malaga to Madrid.
But the easiest way to reach the place is with your own car or with a car hire Malaga service or any other place of Andalusia as the highway is quite close to the town.
WHAT TO SEE IN ANTEQUERA?
If you only have a day or a weekend, these are the 6 plans to enjoy fully Antequera:
1. CHURCHES ROUTE:
Antequera has nearly 30 churches you can visit and each one of them has its own treasure and something special different to the others. As you won’t be able to visit all of them in just 1-2 days, these are the ones not to miss:
● In the first place the Colegiata de San Sebastián, a church from around the XVIth century. At its door you can find the ‘km 0’ of all regional roads.
● The Iglesia del Carmen is another one you have to visit, it goes back to the XVIIth century. You can find inside one of the best examples of a Spanish baroque altar.
● The Iglesia de San Agustín, the Iglesia de Santiago, the Iglesia de los Remedios, the convento de los Franciscanos or the Capilla de la Virgen del Socorro may perfectly fulfil the rest of the route
2. DOLMENS OF ANTEQUERA:
A dolmen is a stone construction from Neolithic times built by the habitants of the area to cover themselves. They are formed by big stones placed in vertical and horizontal positions configuring complex structures (for those times). Thanks to paintings and other elements is possible to extract a lot of historical information about the men and women who built them.
You can find in Antequera three of these monuments part of the Unesco’s World Heritage Sites list from 2016. There are three different dolmens in the site: the dolmen de Menga, the dolmen de Viera and the Dolmen del Romeral.
The dolmen de Menga is the biggest one in Europe and was built around 3500 B.C. Very close you can find the Dolmen de Viera, built around 2500 B. C. Finally just 2 km away -you may want to take your car there- you can find the Dolmen del Romeral, built around 1800 B.C.
3. THE TORCAL OF ANTEQUERA:
The Torcal of Antequera is a natural place over 150 million years old famous for its limestone rocky formations. The karst landscape makes of it one of the most attractive places of the province. You have three different routes to walk around the area, reaching a peak of 1300 metres where you can enjoy beautiful views of the region.
4. ROUTE OF THE MUSEUMS:
In Antequera you can visit two main museums: the Antequera City Museum and the Provincial Government Art Museum.
The former is the most important one of the two, it is located in the Nájera Palace in the centre of the city where you can find exhibits from the prehistoric times up to present day. You can enjoy also an interesting exposition of medieval Muslim and Christian times.
The latter is located in a typical Antequera palace-house where you can visit the three main areas: the tower-viewpoint, the courtyard and the main stance. It has permanent and temporary exhibitions and a special area dedicated to the Dolmens.
5. MONTE DEL INDIO OR PEÑA DE LOS ENAMORADOS.
As a great end for your visit is highly recommendable to pay a visit to the peña de los enamorados or a least enjoy its view from the distance in some of the viewpoints of the city. It’s a small mountain with a very peculiar profile, like the face of an American Indian lying. It’s also known as peña de los enamorados (peak of the lovers) thanks to a tragic love story on the best Romeo and Juliette tradition: two lovers decide to jump embraced to the void from the peak to avoid living without the other.
6. LOBO PARK ANTEQUERA
If you like animals, paying a visit to Lobo Park (wolf park) is a great idea. Thanks to its guided visits, available in Spanish and English (for a cost between 7,5€ and 11,5€) you will discover the behaviour of different wolf species in a natural habitat: European wolves, Timber, Iberic and white wolves from Alaska among them. If you like photography there are special routes that makes possible closer observations to take the best photos. The park also offers a special treat: ’howls night’, where you can watch wolves by night and hear their howls.
WHAT TO BUY IN ANTEQUERA?
The best souvenirs to take with you after a visit to Antequera are without doubt some special dishes and cakes/sweets very well known all around. The bienmesabe is one of those treasures: it’s the local cake most renowned. It is made with crushed almonds, soletilla biscuits and cabello de angel (or ‘angel’s hair’, a kind of pumpkin jam). You can buy them on the Belén convent or in the San José one.
Of course, you have to buy also some molletes antequeranos, a kind of bread of Muslim origin with white soft crumb not much baked, perfect to toast lightly at home, that you can buy in any local bakery.
If your visit is around Christmas time you must buy some alfajores or mantecados (typical Christmas preparations) that you can get in La Antequerana or in Sancho Melero.
If you want to spend a great day or surprise someone special choose Antequera and enjoy all it has to offer. We hope this post about what to see in Antequera is useful. If you want to know more about other plans to enjoy Malaga province of other destinations go on reading our blog.
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