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Macharaviaya AREA: 7,20 km² ALTITUDE ABOVE SEA LEVEL: 235 metres AVERAGE ANNUAL RAINFALL: 520 l/m² AVERAGE ANNUAL TEMPERATURE: 17’6 ºC POPULATION CENSUS 1994: 364  
The landscape of Macharaviaya is one of the most sober in the province of Málaga. In the centre of a small hollow are the town and its annexed nucleus Benaque, surrounded by smooth hills which in other times were covered with vines and today are mainly pasture lands with some circles of olive groves. Such sobriety contrasts with the marks left of its glorious past. Macharaviaya was founded as a villa in 1572 over an old farmstead of Arabic origin which gives it its name, as it comes from the phonetic transcription of "Machar Ibn Yahya", which means - Yahaya’s son’s estate-. After the Moorish revolts and the expulsions in 1570 and 1580, the area was left very depopulated and thus remained until in the Galvez family appear in the town’s history. Their estate was frequently visited by the most influential people of Málaga in the 18th century. The family was converted into the locality’s patrons. This was how the Real Fábrica de Naipes was created, an Agricultural Bank, a drinking water system is built and an important economic contribution for the San Jacinto Church. During the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th they enjoyed a prosperous economy, to the point that the town was baptized with the nickname "small Madrid". And it really captures the attention, finding, in such an isolated and small place, so many vestiges of splendour. The poet Salvador Rueda was born here in the mid 19th century. He was a friend of Rubén Darío, an author of very Andalusian, sensual and colourful compositions. After the decadence which followed the crisis provoked by the plague of Phyloxera, in the last decades, the town has congregated artists, craftsmen and secure tourists, who are recuperating and rehabilitating the old abandoned houses.
As well as a course through the pretty town with stepped streets, Macharaviaya has a brick temple at the entrance to the town, formed by two cuadrangular bodies, the second open with arches between pilasters, built at the end of the 17th century in memory of the Gálvez family and their donations, according to the inscription. But the most outstanding building is the church of San Jacinto, erected in the 18th century over the site which another church occupied, which was built in the 16th century by order of the archbishop of Seville, Diego de Deza. It has a Latin cross base and one nave covered with a vault and dome over the transept. Outside, the access arch opens up in pairs of Corinthian columns which sustain a split pediment and over this, there is a royal oval shield. Next to the church is the cemetery through which is the entrance to the crypt, which occupies all the subsoil of the temple and where some of the Gálvez family are buried, and are represented by various praying sculptures. Two kilometres from Macharaviaya is the annexe of Benaque, which has a 16th century Mudejar style church, with a cuadrangular base, of which the last bell body has arches. This tower was the minaret of an ancient mosque.
This town, with the passing of the years, has become the refuge of various outstanding artist and craftsmen, specialized in lacework, fretwork, decorative ceramics, etc.
The local gastronomy is practically the same as in the natural region. Nevertheless, they have dishes such as garlic soup, broth, gazpacho, ajoblanco, mayonnaise soup, bread and oil soup,tomate soup, etc. The home-made confectionery is represented by ‘pestiños’ fritters, which are eaten all year round.
In the first week of August they celebrate San Bernardo and in the middle of this same month are the major festivities. There are two cultural weeks programmed: one before Christmas and the other about baroque music at the beginning of August.
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History and Landscape
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Gastronomy
Festivities and traditions