Almeria, Spain tourist guide

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Bedar Almeria

Bédar is an old hill town that has managed to maintain its peace, tranquility and beauty, overlooking a fertile valley dotted with cortijos and small farms.

For many years these characteristics have made it a popular location for artistic - painters, actors, musicians and intellectuales.

Bedar history goes back to the Middle Ages, when Bédar belonged to the municipality of Vera. A mosque survives as a reminder of the Muslim past, converted and for many years used as an olive oil mill, and more recently into a private residence.

Bédar's Muslim heritage can be observed in its narrow, twisting side streets and its fertile plain, with traditional morisco terraces staggered around water courses - an irrigation system that uses the water supply to maximum advantage.

At the ende of the 16th century, the town continued to grow its economy for another two hundred years.

In 1896 the installatoin of a 16km underground system railway was opened, taking minerals straight to a quay at Garrucha harbour, for onward transport. After WW1, the European depression hit the mining sector badly, and practically all the mines in Almería closed down as a result.