The Sierra de Mijas is a limestone mountain chain running parallel to the coast, creating a natural balcony over the Mediterranean having a high degree of biodiversity.
Mijas' Mountain range is one of the most appreciated green areas of the Costa del Sol. The rich botany, wildlife and geological peculiarities overlooking the Mediterranean, together with its rugged terrain, make it an attractive natural setting for walkers who wish to enjoy its hidden beauty, views and landscapes.
NETWORK OF MARKED TRAILS IN THE MOUNTAINS OF MIJAS
ERMITA DEL CALVARIO/ CALVARIO SHRINE
This modest and small chapel was built in 1710. If has only one nave covered with
a half-barrel vault and reinforced on the sides with fascia. It seems that the Barefoot Carmelite Brothers that lived in the Hospice and the Monasterio of the Compás, in Mijas in the XVIII century already used this as a place of spiritual retirement for praying, silence, solitude and penitence.
The Carmelite monks worked in Mijas between the years 1710 and 1813. Their periods in Mijas was almost parallel to the history of Virgen de la Peña, Patron Saint of Mijas. At present, the Shrine is only opened on the Fridays of Lent and the first Friday of March, holy day of Medinaceli Christ.
Did you know that the marble extraction of Mijas has a lot of history?
CANTERA DEL BARRIO / DEL BARRIO QUARRY
The Romans mined significant amounts of marble in the mountain range of Mijas, as well as
having other mines of lead, silver, iron, asbestos and talc.
This gave the village its name, "Mixas" for its mines.
Later, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, one of the main economic activities in Mijas would be the exploitation of white marble and jasper agate, for the construction of monuments, architectural pieces, sculptures and epigraphic that currently
are spread all over Spain.
Surprisingly, for centuries this marble was transported by rafts along the "Las Pasadas" and "Fuengirola" rivers to the sea, where they would continue their sea route to Cadiz and
Sanlucar de Barrameda, and from there go up the "Guadalquivir" river to the port of Seville. The extraction of marble in the quarry is virtually abandoned since the 70s, but until recently
they were still using veins and blocks of marble to make cobblestones.
Mijas marble pieces can be found in the pilaster chapiter and stones found in a Roman temple of Los Boliches and the floor of the Cathedral of Malaga.
As well as in the villages of Torrox, Benalmadena, and Alhaurin el Grande.
Outside the province, the marble of Mijas can be seen in the Archbishop's Palace in the Chapel of San Leandro of Seville, the Sacristy of the San Pedro of Granada church or the
altar in the Chapel of Santa Tecla in the Cathedral of Burgos.
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