Things to do
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Canyon
Barranco de Poqueira
A deep valley under the Sierra Nevada holding three white villages, Capileira at the top and Bubión and Pampaneira below. The marked circuit links all three in about 3 hours and 9.5 km, down one side and back up the other past terraced fields and old irrigation channels. Storms in early 2026 badly damaged the paths here and many are still closed; the national park information point has the current state of each.
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Village
Bubión
The middle village of the gorge, about 2 km down a footpath from Capileira and quieter than either neighbour. Its lanes are mostly free of traffic, and the Casa Alpujarreña museum shows a furnished village house as it was lived in. Weaving workshops still make the striped Alpujarra rugs, and the upper paths look out over the valley at sunset.
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Museum
Casa Museo Pedro Antonio de Alarcón
A village house a few steps from the church, kept as a folk museum and named for the nineteenth-century writer who travelled the Alpujarras and wrote about them. Its rooms show the tools, looms, kitchen and farm gear of mountain life under beamed ceilings. It is small and takes under an hour, and its opening hours are short and change through the year.
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Church
Church of Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza
The parish church at the centre of the village, with a gilded Baroque altarpiece and the image of the Virgen de la Cabeza, the village's patron. The bell tower holds a small museum of old bell yokes and parish records. The square in front is where the village gathers for its two fiestas, at the end of April and in mid August.
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Landmark
Fuente Agria de Pórtugos
A spring of naturally fizzy, iron-rich water beside the road to Trevélez, just outside Pórtugos, where the water runs from spouts into a basin stained rust red. Below it, a short flight of steps drops to a small waterfall over rock coloured by the same iron. It makes an easy stop on the drive east to Trevélez.
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Village
La Taha
Seven small hamlets, Pitres and Ferreirola among them, in a terraced valley east of the gorge, linked by old mule paths through chestnut and walnut trees. An easy path climbs over the ridge from Capileira and down to Pitres in a little over two hours. Buses on the Trevélez line pass through Pitres for the ride back.
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Viewpoint
Mirador Barranco Poqueira
A lookout on Calle Mentidero, a short walk from the church, over the drop into the Poqueira gorge. Bubión and Pampaneira sit on the slope below, and the valley runs south towards the Contraviesa hills. It faces west across the gorge, so it catches the evening light, and the lanes around it stay quiet even in August.
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Other
Mulhacén
At 3,479 metres the highest peak on the Spanish mainland: a long, high walk that needs no climbing skills but is open to wind and sun, with no water on the way. A national park minibus runs from the village in summer to the Paraje del Cascajar at about 2,600 metres, and seats must be booked ahead. The round trip takes most of a day, and the summit is cold and windy even in July.
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Village
Pampaneira
The lowest and busiest of the three Poqueira villages, where the tour coaches stop and craft shops sell rugs, ceramics and local produce. The national park information point on the Plaza de la Libertad has maps and the current state of the mountain paths. The gorge circuit passes through the village, which makes it the natural halfway stop on the walk.
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Bridge
Puente Abuchite
A small footbridge over the Poqueira river below Capileira, on the path that drops from the village towards La Cebadilla. The round trip from the main square takes about an hour and a quarter, with a steep climb back up at the end. The river runs cold and fast with snowmelt into early summer, and the path is shaded by chestnut and poplar on the lower slopes.
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Village
Trevélez
A mountain village of three barrios stepped up a steep slope, known across Spain for its cured ham. The cold, dry air finishes the hams in curing houses, and several of these drying rooms open for visits and tastings. The village is about 35 minutes east of Capileira on a winding road, and walks to the Siete Lagunas lakes start from its upper barrio.
