Costa del Sol Towns

Ancient History

The first settlers in the municipality of Coin were the teachers Fernandez and Ferrer Marquez, among others. They initially settled around the Grande River and Pereila, where they discovered items dating from the paleolithic, neolithic and metal ages, traces of these eras, including the bronze and copper ages, are still being found today.

The first known archaeological relic of pre-historical times found in Coin is the 'workshop ardite', where minerals are extracted and manufactured items have been found, both from the paleolithic age and the copper and bronze ages. There are two sites, Carranque and Cerro Llano de la Virgen, the first is catalogued as a cultural highlight in the age of metal, and the latter covers the whole second millennium BC.

The site at Cerro del Aljibe has witnessed the passage of the pre-historic world, and the surroundings of this location are exceptional. The chronology of findings ranges from the Andalusian calcolithic century, and includes remnants of the Greeks, through to the Phoenicians, Iberians and Romans. Roman civilization is represented largely by utensils and pottery found throughout the township, however it cannot be said that Coin is a Roman municipality.

The first settlers built a spectacular monastery carved into the rock. This was probably built between the eighth and tenth centuries. It no longer stands today, and like many of the ancient buildings of England, is now just a set of ruins.

There were originally three central chambers in the cave monastery, one of which would have been a church. A set of five holes were drilled into the rock from which the three central chambers could communicate with each other, and both sides of the great cave can be accessed independently.

There were gaps to differentiate the entrance, the nave of the church and the square apse, the ceiling of which is intended to imitate a half barrel vault. This rock had to be in its time a suburban monastery, which indicates the existence of an organized community of some importance.

 

It also seems to confirm that Coin castle played an important role in the fighting that led to the rebellion of Omar Ben Hafsun, hence the possible construction of a stronghold built by Abd al-Rahman III, according to the study of Gallera. Although this was probably after the existence of the cave mentioned before, From this moment on it seems, and began a time of great splendour.

In 1330, Christians took over Algarba, which was the administrative capital of Malaga. This was a situation which would not be resolved until the end of the fifteenth century.

It is also in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries that the Muslim authors Ibn Battuta and Ibn al-Khatib forged an image of the region as being a geographical feature of excellence, with an abundance of water, lush vegetation, and good climate that would be continued throughout history.