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Cuento y Leyenda de Áchez

Diputación de Málaga
Portada Guía de cuentos y leyendas de la Axarquía.ESP

Cuento y Leyenda de Áchez

Zip Code 29753
Chronicles and Legends (si se trata de historia)

The town’s name appears in chronicles and writings of the period of the Christian conquest as “alconche”hich comes from the Arab word “al-cocer” meaning “small palace”.

  • Name of its inhabitants:

Archeros.

  • Legend:

A legend is based on the relief that a lizard left as it fell during the casting of one of the bells destined to be placed in the Mudejar belfry. This bell is inscribed  with the following legend: “I was made by Ramon Rivas,when Ildefonso Tomê y Garcîa was priest and Antonio  Garcîa  Azuaya was mayor. 1.876”.

The picture of the lizard, imprisoned in the metal and consequently immortalized in bronze, gave rise to the legend that goes with the bell. The story goes that any young man who cannot find a partner can over come his bachelorhood if he goes up to the bell and kisses the frightening reptile. Sometimes once is enough andother times he will have to repeat the process until hiswish is granted.

The legends about the treasure of the flour mills is situated in the course of the river Turvilla through Árchez, where one can find the remains of three old flour mills which are practically in ruins; well, shortly after the last one was abandoned at the start of last century, a local bought it and when he lifted a huge boulder from one of the walls he saw a smalle ar then ware jug full of gold and silver coins.

This discovery encouraged some of the locals in times of shortage to go down to the river and, around the ruins of the mills, to start lifting and moving the gig rocks which formed part of the structure of the old mills, in the hope of finding new treasures.

In the area around the ravine near Arroyo Luis (LuisStream), there is a well next to the stream, nearly hidden between the rocks, which is attributed with the following legend: When the Moors were being expelled from Archez, a Moorish woman, outwitting all the checkpoints, managed to escape and hide in the depth of the well, as a result of which people thought she had disappeared. The unfortunate Moorish woman lived for years in the well in terrible conditions, having to submerge under the dark waters of the narrow space to avoid detection every time she felt that someone was near the parapet. However, one night when she was looking for food, which included herbs, fruit and even roots, the young girl was discovered and taken to the town square where in front of the church and the priest, crying and lamenting herself, the woman asked for clemency and pity and promised to follow the Christian faith. The woman, weakened and worn out by her long reclusion in such an inhospitable place, could see the end of her life approach and she asked to be allowed to end her days where she had been born so as to be buried next to her ancestors. The whole town, tasking pity because of the terrible story, begged forgiveness fo the unfortunate woman and they offered to look after her until her last wish was fulfilled.

This is the story which has been transmitted from generation to generation concerning the legend of the Pozanco de la Mora (Pool of the Moorish Woman).

 

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