Declared a Historic-Artistic Site in 1980, Archidona is located in the heart of the Northeastern Region of Málaga, at the foot of the Sierra de Gracia and surrounded by the Sierras del Conjuro and Las Grajas. Its location offered both advantages and disadvantages: on one hand, it benefited from being situated in a place that provided a commanding view over a vast territory; on the other hand, it suffered the consequences of lying on the natural route connecting the cities of Granada and Seville, which led to it being involved in numerous conflicts and uprisings throughout history.
The earliest archaeological remains attesting to life in Archidona and its surroundings date back to the Lower Paleolithic period. From the Middle Paleolithic, an important site has been identified in the Cueva de las Grajas, one of the few known from this period in the Iberian Peninsula, and it is currently considered one of the most significant in Europe.
Around the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, evidence points to a pre-Roman settlement in the area known as ‘La Hoya’.
A ring of walls encloses this large space, connecting the surrounding hills and forming a site strongly fortified by both human hands and nature. This context still holds many unanswered questions for archaeological research. As a basic hypothesis, we are looking at a fortified area whose origins may date as far back as the 7th century BCE (within the Tartessian/Orientalizing horizon), possibly with a (continuous or discontinuous) sequence from the 6th to the 2nd centuries BCE (within the Iberian Culture horizon), and later reused during the medieval period, in the time of Andalusian Arxiduna.
One hypothesis suggests that the name ‘ARCHIDONA’ has a pre-Roman origin, derived from the expression ‘ARRI-EXI-DUN-A’. Its meaning, shaped by its defensive character and toponymy, would be ‘the one enclosed by stone’.