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C/ Santiago, 10D 14800 Priego de Córdoba (Córdoba)
Lat. 37.4403672000 Long. -4.1928724000

Recreation of Castile or Huerta de las Infantas.

The so-called Recreo de Castilla is a garden located on the edge of the Adarve wall, just below the Castle of Priego, whose existence is documented at least since the mid-16th century. The first written reference to this place dates exactly from 1550 and appears in a sales deed, under the name Huerta de las Infantas, located below the Adarve of the old gate of this town. Around 1857, this orchard was acquired by D. Antonio Castilla, who built a house there. In the following decades, this gentleman and his heirs (the Castilla Abril and Castilla Bermúdez Cañete) transformed the enclosure into a romantic garden based on vegetation and water features. The garden and pond, fed by waters from the Fuente del Rey that once powered the 5 mills in the area, served as a recreation area for the numerous family members, and on summer nights, gatherings and private parties were organized there. In 1948, a group of Prieguenses organized concerts imitating those held in the gardens of the Alhambra during the Granada Music Festival. Seeking a worthy venue for this celebration, they asked the then D. Álvaro Castilla Abril to lend them the garden. The first concert took place on the night of September 1, 1948, and was the origin of the current International Festival of Music, Theater, and Dance. The Festival was held there until 1957, and in the posters and programs of the Festival in those years, the place appeared under the name Huerto de las Infantas. In the last fifty years, it has been called Recreo de Castilla, after the surname of its owners, although the original toponym of Huerto or Huerta de las Infantas has also been maintained. From 1970 onwards, it underwent a process of abandonment until it became a true ruin. In 2003, an international ideas competition was called to restore the enclosure and turn it into a public garden or park. In 1996, geographer Ángel Luis Vera Aranda wrote about this place: Legends of secret passages and hidden treasures intertwine with what could be the reality of many spaces in Priego (la Joya or the Adarve to name just a few) if the relationship between travertine, water, and vegetation were used correctly, a recipe hitherto very forgotten by those who have in their hands the possibility of making the Subbetic city an even more incomparable setting than it is today.

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