Study in Almería, Spain

Study in Almería, Spain

Almería is a city in the Andalusia region of Spain, positioned in the southeast of the country on the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the capital of the province of the same name.

Famous natives of Almería include Nicolás Salmerón y Alonso, who in 1873 was the third president of the First Spanish Republic; as well as several musicians, including the composer José Padilla Sánchez, whose music was declared of "universal interest" by UNESCO in 1989; the popular folk singer Manolo Escobar; renowned Flamenco guitar player José Tomás "Tomatito;" and Grammy Award winner David Bisbal. The champion motorcyclist Antonio Maeso has also called Almeria home since childhood.

Although administratively annexed to the Autonomous Community of Andalucía, in Southern Spain, some people and groups of the province  have shown a clear desire for regional autonomy in different referendums. The insular effect produced by its geographical situation has made several customs, accents and history different from the rest of the Autonomous Region of Andalucía.

Things to Do and See in Almeria

There are a number of cultural and historical attractions in the city of Almeria.  A couple of these include:

The Gold Mines

There is something very evocative about Almeria’s old gold mines, which were at their peak of activity in the mid-20th century; a fascinating bit of industrial wreckage in a barren red-rock landscape.  If you decide to visit this historical region, try and stop first at La Casa de los Volcanes at the top of the village, a museum with excellent displays on the mines and the geology of Cabo de Gata. Behind the museum you can walk up among the abandoned crushing towers and decantation tanks from the 1950s. The gravel road continues through the hills behind the house, pocked with abandoned mines and the ruined miners' hamlet of San Diego. It's dangerous to enter any of these unstable mines, but the Sendero Cerro del Cinto walking trail, starting just below the Casa de los Volcanes, offers an 11km circuit through this dramatic post-industrial landscape.

Fuente Publica (Public Fountain)

Just outside of Almeria, near the foot of Mojácar Pueblo, this dazzling public fountain is a village landmark. Locals and visitors still fill containers with the water that tumbles out of 13 spouts into marble troughs and tinkles along a courtyard below colorful indigenous plants. A plaque informs visitors that in 1488 this was where the Catholic Monarchs' envoy met Mojácar's last Moorish mayor, Alavez, to negotiate the village's surrender. As the plaque records, Alavez pleaded for his people to be allowed to stay in Mojácar with these poignant words: “When the people of my race have lived more than 700 years in Spain, you say to us ‘You are foreigners, go back to the sea.’ In Africa…they will doubtless say to us, like you, and certainly with more reason than you: ‘You are foreigners, return across the sea by which you came and go back to your own land.’”   History tells us that the Catholic Monarchs agreed to Alavez' request for the Muslims to stay, then they expelled them from Mojácar as soon as they had possession of its keys. The village was repopulated with Christian families, mostly from Murcia and Almeria.