Salinas-Archidona hotels collection

It was at Archidona, the chronicle says, that Abd al-Rahman, an Umayyad prince from Damascus, had himself proclaimed emir of al-Andalus. At the foot of the Sierra de Gracia, the Plaza Ochavada closes its eight façades of brick and stone, in which local master builders wedded French order to Mudéjar habit. Towards the province of Granada, near the hamlet of Salinas, two saltwater lagoons lie in a basin with no outlet, among holm oaks and olive trees, and waterbirds stop there on their way. At the top of the sierra, the hermitage of the Virgen de Gracia occupies a former mosque, and has kept its horseshoe arches.