Iznate

Interesting facts
Area: 7,5
Number of inhabitants: 800
Descent: Iznateños
Monuments: Town Hall, Church of San Gregorio VII
Geographical situation: In the Axarquía, 14 kilometres from Vélez and 35 from Malaga, at 310 metres above sea level.
Tourist information:
Town Hall, C/Vélez, s/n. 29719. Phone: 952 509 776 Fax: 952 505 598

Iznate is a small municipality of barely eight square kilometes in surface area in the interior of the eastern Malaga coast. The easiest way to get there is by the main coastal road, turning off at Benajarafe by the route that begins in Valle-Niza, close to the Marqués Castle towards Cajiz. One could also take the road from Vélez-Málaga, passing through Benamocarra. The urban centre, at 310 metres above sea level, sits on the sides of the Cerro Iznate. The municipality is watered by the river Iznate, and the highest point in the area is the hill known as La Loma del Barco or del Melonar. All the streets of the town seem to lead to the central plaza, the Plaza de los Dolores, which is indeed the social and business centre of Iznate. We can see that it is an open square on the eastern slope of the hill, and here we find the church and a marble fountain built on to it, complete with the coat-of-arms of the Marqués de Iznate. Over this is a picture of the Virgin done in coloured ceramics.
The layout of the town is similar to others in the Axarquía region, with narrow, winding streets and low, whitewashed houses with window pots. The origin of the name derives from the Arabic "hisnat," meaning "castle." The Castle of Aute would thus be Hins Aute, which gives us Iznate. There is no evidence of earlier settlements here before the Moorish occupation. Iznate surrendered to the Christian forces at the end of the 15th century, at the same time as its neighbours in Vélez-Málaga. The town's participation in the Morisco rebellion was severely punished, with the result that the population of the town dropped to 100 by 1574. The present population of the town is eight times more, and the local economy is mainly agriculture. Close to Iznate is the hamlet of Cajiz, which grew up around the Church of San José, and whose inhabitants are almost all farmers or farm workers.


Outstanding visits
Church of San Gregorio
This is the most interesting building in Iznate, dating from the 16th century with later reforms carried out in 1884 and 1946. It was built with a single nave of 25 metres long, seven wide and eleven high. There are three chapels to the side with fairly valuable pieces inside, such as an oil painting of San Francisco de Paula attributed to the painter Zurbarán, and an Immaculate Virgin in coloured wood, dating from the 17th century. On the outside we can see six buttresses with semicircular arches, with the images of St. Peter and St. John, crowned with the Jesuit emblem J.H.S. Above these is the coat-of-arms of St. Gregory VII, installed in the 19th century after the work carried out on the building in 1884 by the Dukes of Iznate.
Natural surroundings
The landscape of the municipality is determined by the hills that run from south east to north west, the highest of which is the Cerro del Melonar, at 463 metres above sea level, and which borders with the municipality of Vélez-Málaga. The river Iznate rises in the area known as the Pozas de Tejero, and it flows into the river Almáchar. Its seasonal waters are fed by numerous streams like the La Cañada de los Almencinos, the Noguera, the Noria and the La Cañada de los Campos. The La Fuente Noguera, or the Moguera, as it is known locally, is the biggest of the seven streams that flow through the area, and it is situated at some 400 metres from the western entrance to the town.