Grazalema — the village under the sierra

Grazalema sits in a bowl below the Peñón Grande, a limestone wall that rises straight behind the village and stays in the frame from almost every street. The houses are whitewashed with grey stone door surrounds and dark tiled roofs — a harder, more mountain look than the villages further west.

The Plaza de España is the working centre, with the church of La Aurora, a fountain and enough space to step back for a wide frame. From there the lanes climb, and five minutes above the last houses the ground opens onto grazing land with the crag above and the village below.

This is the wettest municipality in Spain, which is why the sierra behind is green in a province that burns brown by June. Cloud sits in the valleys on winter mornings and lifts through the day — a completely different palette from coastal Andalusia, and worth shooting rather than avoiding.

Parking is at the edge of the village and the streets are steep. The Puerto de las Palomas pass, ten minutes up the road, gives a viewpoint over the whole valley, and access to some park trails is limited by permit in the fire season — check before planning anything beyond the village itself.