This route that goes by between Seville and Grenada is a travel after the way made in 1829 by American romantic writer and diplomatic Washington Irving, who was fascinated with the wealth and exotics of the Hispanic Moorish civilization. This is a connecting highway established several centuries before; in Late Middle Ages was used as commercial road between the Christian Peninsular South and the Nazarí kingdom of Granada. This route, as many others, had a marked boundary character. From truce to truce the agricultural products and cattle went to Granada from Sevillian countryside; once in Granada, they were bartered for spices, colourings, cloths and silks. In its stages, the route passes by lands full of an extraordinary landscape and monumental richness, places, villages and towns full of historic, legendary and literary evocations. The road joins both capital cities of both Andalusian regions, the Lower and the Higher; they are two plains, the Campiña (Countryside) and the Vega (Lowland), separated by a suggestive rough journey. The road goes by between Seville and Grenada, the two obliged stations for a romantic tour projected from the early 19th century as image of Andalusia in Europe, which attracted many artists, writers, curious people and every kind of travellers. From now on, we invite the walker to revive experiences and to enjoy weather, a nature and some exceptional towns, where in addition to their artistic heritage, the welcoming hospitality and the open nature of people is felt.
The Washington Irving Route keeps basically to the trajectory, of some 250 km., of the A92 highway between Seville and Grenada through Antequera. It also makes some incursions into this central axis' sides: In the beginning, by the North, it gets close to Carmona, Marchena and Écija; later on it changes its course toward Montefrío and Íllora, also at the North; finally, it visits Alhama of Granada, some kilometres South of A92.
As Irving himself said, when "leaving the beautiful city of Seville2, the way toward Grenada moves along Los Alcores (Hills), the soft elevation of rock and albero-sand that sticks to the River Guadalquivir on the East side. The first stage of the road is Alcalá de Guadaíra, called by our romantic "benefactor of Seville", because during centuries it supplied Seville with water and bread, which made Alcalá deserve the nickname of "Alcalá of the Bakers".
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Brochure Route of Washington Irving