Outlying districts of Puerto Lumbreras: Puerto Adentro

A rural area where agriculture depended in the past on an underground source

The Puerto Adentro district of Puerto Lumbreras is a largely rural area which borders on the neighbouring municipality of Huércal-Overa in the province of Almería. Very few people live here – just over 200 at the latest count - although part of the small hamlet of Goñar lies within the boundaries, and much of the land is occupied by almond and olive groves and there are also some lemon and peach orchards.

The patron of Goñar is the Virgen del Carmen, and although her church actually lies in Almería the village unites to celebrate its annual fiestas in the middle of August, when the figure of the Virgen is taken from house to house on a Romería.

The countryside here is one of sharp contrasts, from the flat plains of the Nogalte area to the mountains of Sierra de Enmedio, and flint tools found at the Cueva del Rayo cave show that it was inhabited sporadically from the end of the Paleolithic to the Neolithic. Activity during the occupation by the Romans can only be guessed at, although it must be supposed that agriculture existed, and the same situation pervaded until the 13^th century under Moorish rule.

One specific development, though, is that the Moors devised a water supply system similar to the one they created in Puerto Lumbreras, using “caño” pipes and “lumbrera” lamp-holes to draw supplies from an underground source: this was also the case in the village of Goñar, and the system was still in use as late as the 1970s, allowing access to water all year round.

(Note: for administrative purposes the municipality of Puerto Lumbreras is divided into four “pedanías”, or districts: Puerto Lumbreras itself, El Esparragal, Puerto Adentro and Cabezo de la Jara.)

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