Monteprieto

Monteprieto

A group of gently sloping fields spread out below the Tajos de Monteprieto, some 900 m to the west of the summit of Cerro Zumacal.
This is a plot of land cleared of scrub and loose stones, which was under cultivation until the 1960s and is now used as pasture for livestock. These lands, situated at an altitude of around 1,000 m and equidistant from Zuheros and Doña Mencía, were once sown with all kinds of cereals (wheat, oats, spelt, rye, barley and yeros), pulses (chickpeas, lentils and broad beans, which are rightly renowned throughout the region) and almond trees – the only fruit-bearing tree capable of withstanding the harsh winters of the mountains, which still offer stunning scenes when they blossom in early spring. Traces of this activity can be seen everywhere. There are at least sixteen threshing floors, several huts where farmers used to live during the sowing or harvest seasons, the boundaries of the various plots and cairns, all of which bear witness to a time when these landscapes were teeming with life and when people earned their livelihood through hard work carried out by hand and with the help of mules and oxen.