Centro de Interpretación Hábitat Troglodita Almagruz

Useful Information

Location:	A-92, Km 286, 18519 Purullena. (37.333859, -3.225219)
Open:	All year daily. [2023]
Fee:
Classification:
Light:	Incandescent Electric Light System
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Centro de Interpretación Hábitat Troglodita Almagruz, A-92, Km 286, 18519 Purullena, Tel: +34-658-92-39-71.
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History

Description

The Centro de Interpretación Hábitat Troglodita Almagruz (Almagruz Troglodytic Habitat) is a museum about cave houses. It shows typical cave dwellings from the Prehistoric to contemporary cave houses. The area around Guadix is well known for numerous modern cave houses, both the locals and tourists which have a holiday home here use this technique. This museum is part of a tourist complex, a hotel which offers underground rooms, located at the A-92 on the shore of the Fardes river. The hotel is known as Casas Cuevas Almagruz or Hábitat Troglodita Almagruz. It has six room which are actually cave houses, so this is a possibility to stay in a cave house overnight. Those cave houses are modern cave houses with any infrastructure we are used to, like electric light, tap water and sewage. There is not much difference to a normal hotel, except that it is underground.

The mountainside here consists of marl, a rock with a very high amount of clay, which is quite soft. As a result it is easy to dig a cave house. In ancient times a pick and shovel were enough. The museum consists of three underground rooms with exhibitions on the daily life of people in such cave houses. It is also a visitor center for the GeoPark.

The cliff above the hotel is full of artificial caves, it's possible to see about 40 openings in the wall. The openings are at different height, there are no identifiable levels. Most openings have traces were the doors were once fixed. There are four shafts which connect numerous caves. The rooms rectangular and are typically about 3 m by 2.5 m in size. It is actually not clear who built them and what for. The different theories include a necropolis, a columbarium, a hermitage, a Christian refuge against arab attacks, and granaries or warehouses built during the al-Andalus time.