The town of Moclinejo stands on a small hill of the Piedras Blancas hills, open to the valley of the Benagalbón river. Its surroundings are typical of the Axarquía, with fissured hills which are mainly covered in olives, almonds, and vines, and thickets over the hardest slopes of the terrain.

The town offers a pretty picture when you look at it from the road which ascends from the coast. From some parts of the town you can see the coast through the corridor of the Benagalbón valley. The typical handicraft is the weaving with grasses etc. There are also two factories or oil mills where you can buy the much appreciated oil. Raisins and Muscatel wine can also be acquired.

Despite the fact that the municipality of Moclinejo has no very high elevations (its highest points are the Córdoba hill in the north at 708 metres and the 673 metre Piedrasblancas hill, over one of whose slopes the village is spread) its terrain is especially steep and cut by deep ravines due to the proximity of the Málaga mountains.

The streams that cross the municipality (Valdés and Granadilla) are short and only have water after fairly heavy rains, so vegetation is scant and arboreal species are limited to olive and almond trees. Together with grapes, these form the basis of the Moclinejenses’ economy. Use of machinery for tilling the soil is difficult because of the steepness of the terrain except in the area drained by the Valdés stream, where there are productive market gardens and orchards.

As there is no record whatever of settlements before the arrival of the Arabs it can be accepted as fact that this village is of Muslim origin, as is clearly shown both by the site that was selected for the village and by the layout of the streets in its old quarter.

The origin of the locality’s name, however, is less clear. In fifteenth and sixteenth century chronicles, it appears without discrimination as Moclinetum, Molinete, Moclinete, Mohinete or Molinillo.

An important historic event occurred in these lands a few years before the conquest of Málaga.

A Christian army of 2,700 cavalry and 1,000 infantry under the command of Alonso Aguilar arrived at Moclinejo in March 1483 and its residents immediately grabbed their belongings and ran to seek refuge in the castle. Finding no booty of any kind in the village or the nearby farmhouses to carry away, the infuriated Christian army set fire to the community.

In response, the Muslims emerged from the castle and launched large quantities of arrows and rocks from the highest point, resulting in numerous casualties among the Christian army. In memory of that resounding defeat, there is a ravine that is still called “Hoya de los Muertos” (Valley of the Dead).

There is nothing at all remarkable about Moclinejo’s history in later eras. Like the rest of the villages, it was conquered by the Christians and saw the expulsion of the Moors in the sixteenth century. Its economy slowly came to depend on grapes and wine until the appearance of the phylloxera pest in 1875, whose first outbreaks were detected here. It destroyed more than 200,000 vines the first year and put an end to the village’s main product.

How to Get There

f coming from the city of Málaga, take the Mediterranean Expressway towards Motril-Almería. Shortly before Rincón de la Victoria exit onto the MA-107 and take it to Benagalbón, and there take the MA-108 to Moclinejo. Once you have left the coast the route is short but very crooked.