The Axarquía's jewel — Málaga's most beautiful white village above the Costa del Sol
Frigiliana is a small white village in the Axarquía comarca of Málaga province, perched on a ridge of the Sierra Almijara above Nerja with views to the Mediterranean. Its Barribarto (old Moorish quarter) is an extraordinarily well-preserved maze of whitewashed alleys decorated with colourful tiles, flower pots, and ceramic mosaics depicting the 1569 Morisco revolt against Philip II. The village produces a locally famous cane honey (miel de caña) and is consistently rated one of the most beautiful villages in Andalusia.
Frigiliana's distinctive Moorish old quarter (the Barribarto) survived intact because after the Moorish population was expelled following the 1569 Morisco Rebellion — the tiles and ceramics lining the alleyways commemorate this event in twelve ceramic fresco panels — the village was repopulated by settlers who simply moved into the existing houses rather than rebuilding. The Sugar Factory (Ingenio de Nuestra Señora del Carmen, 1747) on the road below the village still operates, converting sugar cane into miel de caña — one of the last surviving traditional cane sugar operations in Europe.