One may have to look carefully at the cover image to see why this place, Setenil de las Bodegas, piqued our interest when reading the Rough Guide to Andalucía.
Look again and look carefully and one might notice that in this white Andalucían town many of the houses are built right into the rock. While the cover image is taken on the edge of town, we approached from a different direction and at first the town looked like many others in the region.
Roofs of red tiles capped white washed houses as they jostled for position on the steep sided banks of the Rio Trejo (the river Trejo). In descending down the narrow pathways, it soon became clear that many of the houses were actually built into the rock itself.
Down at the foot of the gorge the river is patrolled by a road on either bank, with one of these roads going right through the rock, houses and shops on both sides.
It was a fascinating place and not adversely affected by tourism to date, from what we could see. The area used to be a thriving wine making region and the “caves” ‘made excellent cellars, hence the latter part of the town’s name “Bodega”.
Here are a couple more images of the town and yours truly, hence the Wife gets the credit for two of the following images (and the one above):
In some ways it reminded me of Pitigliano in Italy, but then both places are sited on tufa rock so perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising.
Hope this has proved of some interest to at least some of you out there and thank you to the Rough Guide for allowing us to discover a place like this.
Note: I earn no money from Rough Guides or have any connection with them, but do like the guides they produce for their readability and interesting highlights.
Meticulous Mick 
Fascinating! I don’t think living in one of those houses would be a particularly restful existence for me – I would always have this nagging worry…
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Thanks Frederick, the cafe we entered was perfectly normal inside, but the place is fascinating. Think I’d be more worried about the damp than anything else….
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You do find some interesting places to visit! Fascinating
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Cheers Dannie, I like to travel the road less traveled where possible and find some hidden gems. I call it natural curiosity, hence the amended blog name. Love maps too and trying to find interesting looking “dead ends”. Doesn’t always pay off of course, but god loves a trier…..🍀
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What a fascinating place. Thank you for sharing your images of it.
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That’s what this is all about 😎
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Thanks for the heads up on this place and also Pitgiliano 🙂 I love how the locals made use of what they had in abundance – rock.
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No problems Lee. Both places are surprisingly low key on the tourism side – Pitigliano as it is overshadowed by other Tuscan draws while this place is under the shadow of Ronda. And both are better for it 👌🏼
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Gorgeous and completely unexpected! Love this! Thanks for the tip!
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Glad you liked it, 🍀
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Looks like a very interesting town. Great shots!
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Cheers Tiny, glad you appreciated the info. MM🍀
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Looks a most interesting place, John…..I’ve been to Pitigliano, so I ought to look this place up too!
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Interesting, absolutely. However, not as spectacular as Pitigliano, which I really loved and we stayed there 3 nights. Here we visited from Ronda which was the right option….👌🏼
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OK! I was only in Pitigliano a few hours some years back, would love to see it again…..
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Stunning place. Don’t get me wrong this place was very interesting, but just not on the same scale as Pitgiliano…
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