Middle Ages

As it is known, the fall of the Roman Empire in the IV century gave way to the Middle Ages, and therefore the entrance on the Visigoths in the Peninsula.

There are not known remains if this culture in Arboleas.The Visigothic culture gave way to the Islamic culture, that was settled in Arboleas until 1.488, when the towns of the region surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs in the Real de Vera.

During the Islamic period, Almanzora river was very important since it became the enreé of Eastern people, ideas, products...

The population settled around the Torre Vigía (watchtower), that was rebuilt in this period. The watchtower had then an octogonal plan, which represents the eight-pointed star, typical in Andalusi art.

The mosque was located just attached to the Torre Vigía and its remains have been preserved until the end of the XX century.

An important person from this period, born in Arboleas, is currently being studied. He is Abu ben Abdelacís Al-Arbulí, who was a bromatologist and a doctor in the Nazari Kingdom. He was the author of a manuscript kept in the Biblioteca Nacional (Spanish National Library). The manuscript is called “Tratado de los alimentos” (“Food treatise”), and was written between the end of the XIV century and the beginning of the XV century.

Most of the historical and cultural heritage of the region comes from this Islamic period, that also left us gastronomy, architecture, festivities, customs…definitively, our way of thinking and feeling.

One of the most important contributions from the Islamic period is everything related to the water culture, represented in the basin of the Almanzora river.

The old Roman path was substituted by the Al-Jatib route, that linked Granada and Murcia, either through Almanzora or Los Vélez.