Macharaviaya a Villas & Apartments Book Direct With Owners

The main agricultural products here are the vine and sub-tropical fruits. It was the former which led to the flourishing of this area of La Axarquia in the 18th century, but the phylloxera epidemic of 1870 plunged the economy of Macharaviaya into a ruin from which it is only just beginning to emerge.

The village still has a Moorish air, and its streets still conserve their 18th-centurypaving stones. The village was found­ed in the 16th century on the site of a Moorish settlement which bore the name of MachxarAbu Yahya (Meadow of Abu Yahya).

The village reached its maximum mo­ment of splendour in the 18th century, when it was known as "Little Madrid". Its prosperity was mainly due to the cultivation of the vine, but to this has to be added the importance of the Galvez family. Don Jose Galvez, Mar­quis of Sonora, was Minister for the In-dias during the reign of Charles III, and this king granted the family the conces­sion of the Royal Card Factory, which supplied the American market, giving a further boost to the economy of the village.