This small paradise of barely 500 inhabitants is situated at an altitude of over nine hundred metres, receiving the popular name of “The Pyrenees of the South”. The contrast between the rock and the humid vegetation results in a spectacular landscape in which the most spectacular steep cliffs in the province of Málaga can be found. Its complicated orography and its distance from the capital converted these lands into great shelters for bandits during the Nineteenth Century.
Archaeologists have managed to find domestic objects that prove the presence of humans in these parts for over 5.000 years. The subsequent evolution of the town has always been linked to the neighbouring town of Alfarnate, from which it separated in the Eighteenth Century.
As places worthy of visiting, one must point out the Parish Church of “El Santo Cristo de Cabrilla”, the already mentioned archaeological sites at the gorge of the “Sabar River” and south of the “Tajo Gómer” and the natural itinerary of the route of the cliffs (“La Ruta de los Tajos”). Furthermore, pictorial remains (the oldest dating from the Palaeolithic Era) exist in many of the numerous caves and shelters of the place: “Cuevas del Chamizo”, “La Morronquera”, “Pela Horá”, and the shelter of “Cortijo de la Cueva”…
Alfarnatejo commences its festive calendar with “La Candelaria” at the beginning of February. It is followed, in spring, with “la Romería de San Marcos” (15th May). And, above all, the festivities of the 29th of September in honour of “San Miguel” and of “El Cristo de la Cabrilla”.
In order to come into contact with the gastronomy of this splendid place, nothing better than the good stews. Fried goat (chivo frito), “migas”, “setas de cardillo” together with the traditional “roscos de San Marcos”, complete its varied and succulent offer.