Cabezo de la Cruz in El Garrobillo, Águilas

A short climb for panoramic views over the landscape of Águilas

Just a ten-minute drive from the town of Águilas, in the heart of the crop fields which lie in the east of the municipality behind Cabo Cope, is the rural community of El Garrobillo, which consists mainly of farmland and is home to very few people. Much of the area known as Garrobillo actually lies in the municipality of Lorca, but the church and the unusual steps climbing up a hill behind it are within the boundaries of Águilas.

This is a pleasant place for a brief stop during a tour of the Águilas countryside, providing a short climb up to the top of the hill to admire the views out over the land which was to have been occupied by the Marina de Cope development. At the top is a cross bearing the legend “Esta cruz vencerá” (This cross shall triumph), but there is little else to admire apart from the panoramic view.

Once a year, though, the church and the Cabezo de la Cruz are the centre of the local fiestas. This occurs on 8^th December, when in honour of the patron saint of the Cope area, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, the locals gather and join in various games and activities, including one known as the “Rama de Tomate”, where a prize is awarded to the person who has grown the best tomato.

Music at these fiestas is provided by the local “cuadrillas de animeros”, traditional folk music and dance groups, and on the 8^th December, which is a national holiday, hundreds of people attend Holy Mass before parading with the figure of the patron around the church and up to the top of the staircase.

At Christmas the focus of the fiestas moves to nearby Cuesta de Gos, further up in the foothills of the mountains which lie behind El Garrobillo.

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