With serial tentative sites there is always a risk that you visit a location that gets cut in the process. If you scroll down, you will find my review of Archidona which was originally part of the nomination, but got cut. In 2021, the nomination was grouped into locations and themes. Archidona features in none.

The locations around Sevilla seem to focus on industrial production of Olives. Around Malaga, there are several historic Olive Groves which are famous for their olives. Visiting Samuel and Natasa in Malaga, they took me to Periana. And travelling between Sevilla and Malaga I stopped at Alora. Of the two Periana was the more interesting site to as we saw several old, wicked olive trees. In Alora, I couldn't spot any trees of note and would have needed a guide.

OUV

The two new locations I visited haven't improved my opinion. Travelling across Andalusia's endless monoculture of olive groves has rather made me less inclined to support this. It can't be good for the environment to convert each and every open field into an olive grove.

If this needs to be inscribed, I would prefer to include them in an existing site. Ubeda comes to mind as it is literally in the middle of a huge olive grove. And you could make a similar argument for Sevilla.

Getting There

Periana, no idea. Around Sevilla, a combination of buses and walking should take you there. Alora has a train station, …

When you travel through Andalusia, you inevitably drive through olive groves. Actually, you do it all the time. The area around Jaen is called 'El mar de olivos' not without reason. But it's hard to say which of these countless olive trees would be included in a nomination and why. The monotonous olive landscape in Andalusia is more reminiscent of the mass product that fills the shelves of our supermarkets than of a cultural heritage of outstanding value. But the same could be said about vineyards, of course.The T-list entry from 2017 includes a list of 15 areas, but without detailed information and without coordinates. Recently (April 2021) the nomination has been specified. A submission is planned to the WHC in 2023. The proposal was reduced to ten main locations and several sublocations, and Jasam was able to find an official document with maps and coordinates (see this Forum post).

I was happy to see that I had visited one part of the nomination on my Andalusia trip in 2016, the Hacienda La Laguna. At that time there were only news on the web about a planned candidature, but no T-list entry and no details. I had chosen the Hacienda for a visit because it is only ten kilometres from Baeza and because it houses the Museo de la Cultura de Olive. The draft nomination document reads that Hacienda La Laguna represents the period of industrialisation in the first half of the 19th century, …

March 2017 besides the many naval orange trees, we saw a tremendous amount of olive groves on our trip. Which of these will be part of a future whs, i dont know. But looking at the map: we had a small stopover in Archidona, we spent the night on a campground in Cazorla between olivetrees, of course we visited Baeza, we passed Matorla and had breakfast in Baena. So at least we saw some of the proposed towns, which had nice settings within the olive groves. The groves we did not really visit, at least no guided Tour through olive Farms. However, olives are important for the mediterranen landscape, why not on the whs list. We are excited to see the emerging nomination.

The Olive Grove Landscapes of Andalusia is a serious candidate for WH nomination by Spain in the coming years. I have it written down for 2022, but it might have to battle with Talayotic Culture of Minorca first (things go much more slowly now only 1 nomination per country per year is allowed). It was added to the Tentative List only in 2017 and comprises a well-defined set of 15 olive grove locations of the continuing cultural landscape type. Andalusia is the world's leading olive tree grower, producing 30% of the global production of olive oil. Its 'olive history' stretches back "thousands of years": the Phoenicians introduced the cultivated olive tree, while locals already exploited the wild olive trees.

The landscape is impossible to miss when driving from Malaga to Cordoba on the A-45 past Antequera: one sees nothing but olive groves for about 100km on both sides of the road. The tentative site description calls it a "sea of olive trees" - maybe inspiration for a future Epic Subtitle?

After my visit to nearby Medina Azahara, I went to take a closer look at one of the proposed Olive Grove Landscapes: Lucena. This is a different location from the one visited by previous reviewer Nan, who choose Archidona which lies more to the south. Lucena has long links with olive production. The town has an interesting general history as well, as …

Note: Archidona is not longer part of the nomination.

Our excursion to the Rupestrian Art of Bessarabia was not the first post meetup trip Philipp and I undertook. One year prior after our meetup in Gibraltar I joined him and his brother on a trip to Antequerra. And having done my map homework I convinced both to do a quick stop in Archidona. They were heading to Ubeda and it was on the route anyhow.

Archidona is one of the 15 locations proposed in the nomination. As is often the case with sites prior inscription we weren't quite sure where precisely the location was. We settled on the monastery on the top of the city mountain (Ermita virgen de gracia). And indeed just behind the monastery on the other side of the mountain we found an Olive Grove.

OUV

The monastery was nice. The views, too. And I like olives. I am not sure this is enough. But maybe olive groves are the next vineyards, who knows?

Getting There

There are buses connecting Archidona with Antequerra and Malaga. Having ticked off Antequerra in the morning, I just continued onwards to Malaga. You should also be able to go via Loja to Granada.

While You Are There

Archidona is a pleasant site with a nice Andalusian old town. I hiked down from the monastery through the olive groves and had lunch in town while I waited for the bus back …