Casa Calvo

Located in the heart of the oldest and most beautiful sections of Priego, the vacation rental Casa Calvo makes an excellent base for trips throughout Andalusia. Well-stocked grocery stores, cozy tapas bars, and restaurants with authentic local cuisine are all within easy walking distance of your third-floor apartment. There’s even a (small) spot in garage reserved for your rental car in town (a couple of blocks away).

The Casa Calvo offers two bedrooms, one with two twin beds (can be combined or separated), one with a double. The living room/dining room is spacious and well furnished with plenty of room to relax. The kitchen is equipped with everything necessary for cooking basic meals. There is a washing machine and drying rack in the adjacent washroom. The apartment is heated for the cooler months. For the warmer months, there are air conditioning units in the living room and in each bedroom.

Priego de Córdoba, the capital of the Subbética region, offers a fabulous location on a plateau that overlooks the Subbética mountain range. Though Priego’s history dates back over 8,000 years, the town came into prominence during the eighteenth century, when wealth from the silk and textile industries financed the construction or remodeling of the Baroque churches and buildings for which it’s famous. Most of Priego’s monuments are within an easy walk of the old town, which was built on the edge of the plateau around the thirteenth-century Moorish castle.

Before exploring Priego’s Baroque offerings, visitors should take in the Barrio de la Villa, the ancient Moorish part of town and its oldest residential area. The barrio is a serpentine maze of cobbled alleyways and houses decorated with wrought-iron window grilles and potted plants of geraniums and petunias. The barrio’s narrow alleyways make it a natural pedestrian zone, only broken up by the occasional little plazas (plazuelas) like the charming Plazuela de San Antonio. The barrio borders on the splendid Paseo del Adarve, an original Moorish promenade with views over the valley below and the rolling landscape of olive groves stretching to the distant hills.

The first of Priego’s Baroque churches is the Iglesia de la Asunción, formerly a Gothic building remodeled in the eighteenth century. Though the exterior of the Asunción is quite modest, a sumptuous white stucco interior leads to a stunning carved Mannerist altarpiece. The most exquisite part of the church, however, is found through a portal on the left aisle, through which one enters the sacristy, a dazzling masterpiece of Spanish Baroque stucco and statuary. Both the altar and the sacristy of the Asunción have been declared national monuments. Visitors, however, should not neglect the other Baroque treasures found among Priego’s other churches: the San Pedro, the San Juan de Dios, the Aurora and the San Francisco.

Visitors are also urged to see the sixteenth-century Fuente del Rey (King’s Fountain) at the southern end of town. This extraordinary Baroque cascading fountain features 139 waterspouts surrounding a statue of Neptune. The park where the fountain is located offers some tranquility, in contrast with the bustle of town.

Being the largest town in the Subbética region, Priego de Córdoba offers everything a traveler needs: ATMs, bakeries and cafés, as well as markets and shops of all kinds. Priego also offers the greatest selection of restaurants in the region and will likely be the town choice for a night out. In addition, the local travel agency can help with hotel and train reservations for those interested in longer overnight trips.

From Priego de Córdoba, easy day trips can be made to Cabra, another Baroque gem, as well as Lucena, a town with an industrial appearance that masks some of the region’s most superb churches, about 13 miles to the west. In addition to smaller towns in the region, the 3 major cities of Andalusia – Córdoba, Granada and Sevilla – are all within a 2 -hour drive.

Your landlord, Juan, lives in the same building, just downstairs from your apartment. He speaks limited English, but conveys his message through his warm personality.