History

The first settlers were tribes belonging to the Neolithic, that gave way to other cultures like the Roman one.

The Middle Ages bequeathed vestiges such as the medieval bridge and the causeway between Yegen and the nearby village of Mecina Bombarón.

Yegen experienced an important boom during the Arab domination and developed an important nucleus of population with two neighborhoods: the low neighborhood and the upper quarter that still exist today. During this time, these lands would know their best years and inherited some of the Muslim inventions that still operate today with the same validity as in the past, as is the case of the irrigation system through the irrigation ditches.

Its inhabitants are descendants of the majority of the resettlers who came from the north of Spain, mainly from Galicia after the definitive expulsion of the Moors in the XVI century.

At the end of the XIX and early XX century, it was the land of emigrants, especially of people who sought fortune by making the Americas. The emigration, that never ceased throughout the TWENTIETH century, was approaching distributed destinations until well into the years 1980 by Andorra, Germany and Switzerland, mainly. This trend has been reversed and in recent years, British, Dutch and German, mostly have bought a good number of properties, reforming and living them or or using them for rural tourism.

In 1973 the town of Yegen merges with Mecina Bombarón, the annex of El Golco and  Montenegro, to form the municipality of Alpujarra de la Sierra.

Heritage

Monuments

Church of Yegen: highlights the Church of the sweet name of Jesus, with a meticulous coffered mudejar in his roof. The main façade overlooks the town square and features two half-point arches, Tejadillo and belfry. The interior stands out for its simplicity and beauty, according to the memorial of the visit to the Alpujarras in 1578-79 of Alonso López de Carvajal, it gathers that the church of the sweet name of Jesus of Yegen was “healthy and era of the Old Ones”, which makes think that it retained its old Mezqui Which was built in the XVI and XVII centuries. Its tower was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War and its patron, “el Niño Bendito” (the Blessed Child), was subsequently stolen, having this one to be replaced by a replica.

 

Peñon del Fuerte: it dates from the XI century. It was a fortress in which the last Moorish of Yegen took refuge. There are remains of a castle on a rocky platform, where ceramic vestiges of different eras have been found. They say that here the last Moorish of Yegen were sheltered, so there has always been a belief that this place is filled with hidden treasures.

 

Fountains and laundries: Water is an important protagonist in Yegen, with its fountains and laundries. Most of these batteries are in a natural environment plagued by vegetation and outdoors.

There are still in the village mothers and grandmothers who continue to tell us how were those mornings that passed in the rocks of the laundry, rubbing the clothes with a piece of homemade soap, because they were the places most frequented by the women and, in addition to place of work , it was also a gathering and gossip.

In Yegen, the best known sources are the “fountain of the square of the Church”, an exagonal plant that dates from the late XIX century, as its inscription reads.

 

The “Fountain of the three pipes” is the oldest in the area and presents the marks of the jars in the stone.

 

As for sinks, two stand out: one located in the lower part of town, known as “The Camel Fountain”, surrounded by a beautiful spot, and the other is “the laundry of the birth” whose water came from the old wheat mill.

 

 

Mills: It is worth highlighting the existence of the “Mill of the Wicker Ravine” and the “Mill of the Signal”, located more than an hour on foot hillside above the center of the village, which is something exceptional. At the time the mill of birth stopped working for lack of water, the locals went up to these other mills that always had sufficient flow to grind the wheat.

 

House of Gerald Brenan: a museum of the locality in which there is an important collection of photographs of the town and its inhabitants, carried out by the Dane J. Van Hansen, known as John the Danish, from the middle of the years 1950 until the years 1990.

 

 

 

Van Hannsen Photographic Museum