Human settlement and land use at Trévelez (Sierra Nevada). A historical-geographical approach

Abstract

Based on written documents of the 16th, 18th and 19th century and on information from a publication of the early 19 70s, as well as on our own field observations, we attempt to describe the evolution of settlement and land use in the territory of Trévelez (Sierra Nevada, Provincia de Granada, Spain), from the end of the morisco period until the present. After the Christian colonization in 1572, a process of extensification took place, which resulted in a type of land use which gave great importance to rainfed cereal agriculture and husbandry of small ungulates. From the end of the 18th century/beginning of the 19th century onward, there are indications of another process of agricultural intensification and diversification, with great importance given to irrigated cultivation. During the past two decades, an abandonment of agricultural areas can be observed, as well as an increase in activities linked to tourism and a certain recuperation of sheep and goat husbandry. It must be pointed out that land use has been submitted to important changes during the past, and that the "traditional" agricultural landscape is of relatively recent origin.