Diezma

The A-92N motorway punches through olive groves and badlands between Granada and the high plateau of Guadix. Most drivers keep their foot down, but those who spot the small brown sign at kilometre 292 and swing off the slip-road are rewarded with a village that hangs in the air like an afterthought. Diezma perches at 1,233 m on a knife-edge ridge, its white houses staggered downhill so steeply that neighbours on opposite sides of the same street live at different altitudes.

From the mirador beside the church you can see why the Moors built a watchtower here. The land falls away in wheat-coloured terraces towards the Guadix basin, while behind you the first pine-clad buttresses of Sierra Nevada rise sharp and sudden. On clear winter mornings the white stripe of the Veleta summit glints 60 km away; in summer the same view shimmers in heat haze, the mountains reduced to a pale cardboard cut-out.

A village that still keeps shop hours

Diezma’s single main street, Calle Real, takes six minutes to walk end to end. There are no souvenir stalls, no flamenco dress shops, not even a cash machine. What you do find is a butcher who knows every customer’s favourite cut, a tiny grocer that stocks tinned squid and tinned peaches side by side, and a bakery whose almond biscuits sell out before 11 a.m. The bakery opens only when the owner’s daughter drives up from Granada with the dough mixer in her boot – a timetable that frustrates weekenders but suits locals fine.

The 700 inhabitants include forty-odd British homeowners who arrived in the early 2000s, bought ruinas for €30,000 and spent winters wrapped in blankets while rewiring. They learnt to order firewood in Spanish, to expect power cuts when the easterly wind tears down the valley, and to greet the village priest whether church-going or not. Integration is measured by whether you’re invited to the annual matanza, the day-long pig butchery that fills January patios with steam and gossip.

Church, caves and a ceiling of stars

The Iglesia de la Encarnación squats at the highest point, its square Mudéjar tower a navigational beacon for anyone who has taken a wrong turn on the surrounding forest tracks. Inside, the air smells of candle wax and centuries of incense. Baroque retablos crowd the walls; the local Virgin, dressed in stiff brocade, carries a miniature scythe in one hand – an agricultural nod that makes English visitors blink. Drop a coin in the box and lights flicker on just long enough to notice the cracks in the plaster shaped like the Iberian peninsula.

Behind the church a lane narrows into a footpath that ducks between houses built into the rock. Some cave dwellings are still homes, their front doors painted cobalt or sunflower yellow; others serve as store-rooms for olives or garden tools. The temperature inside stays at 17 °C winter and summer, a fact that once convinced a Yorkshire couple they could grow mushrooms commercially. They managed one crop before giving up and turning the cave into a holiday let with Wi-Fi and under-floor heating.

Ten minutes uphill on a stony track brings you to the old threshing circles, stone platforms where wheat was once trodden by mules. At night these make excellent star-gazing spots: no streetlights, altitude that thins the air, and a Milky Way bright enough to cast shadows. Bring a jacket even in August; the same height that clears the sky also drops the temperature fifteen degrees after sunset.

Walking tracks and lunch timings

Diezma is a starter rather than a main course for walkers. The Ruta de los Molinos follows an irrigation ditch for 4 km past the ruins of three water-mills. The path is clear, flat and shaded by reeds – perfect for children or anyone recovering from the previous evening’s tapas. Interpretation boards (in Spanish only) show grain prices from 1892 and explain why the mills fell silent when the railway reached Guadix in 1895.

Serious hikers use the village as a springboard into the Sierra Nevada proper. A 600 m climb on the GR-7 long-distance trail reaches the Puerto de la Mora at 1,850 m, where wild boar prints criss-cross the path and, in May, alpine irises flower among the scree. Allow five hours return and carry more water than you think necessary; the only fountain on route drips green with algae even in spring.

Back in the village, lunchtime is 2–4 p.m. sharp. Restaurante Hita, opposite the town-hall, serves roast kid that falls off the bone and a glass of house red for €3. They close the kitchen the moment the last table finishes – usually around 4:15 – and won’t reopen even if you plead starvation. Across the road Bar Cortijo stays open for coffee and tostadas, but its speciality is churros on Sunday morning: queue before 10 a.m. or they sell out.

When to come, and when to stay away

April and October deliver 22 °C afternoons, almond blossom or autumn crocus, and hiking weather that doesn’t require factor 50. Easter week is taken seriously: processions squeeze up streets barely two metres wide, brass bands echo off stone, and every balcony displays a velvet-draped crucifix. Accommodation is impossible to find unless you booked in January.

August belongs to the village fiesta. Temporary fairground rides occupy the football pitch, teenage DJs blast reggaeton until 5 a.m., and the population quadruples with returning relatives. Visitors are welcome but should bring ear-plugs and accept that parking becomes a 20-minute crawl. The same fiesta offers the year’s best chance to try migas – fried breadcrumbs with chorizo – served from giant paella pans by women who stir with oars.

Winter brings snow perhaps twice a season. The A-92N is gritted and usually stays open, but the road up to the village becomes a bob-sleigh run. Chains are sensible from December to February; without them you may spend the night in the motorway service area at Puerto de la Mora, sharing vending-machine coffee with lorry drivers.

Getting there and away – or not

Diezma has no railway, no bus, and no plans for either. Hire a car at Granada airport (35 minutes) or Málaga (1 h 45 min). Fuel up before leaving the motorway – the village garage closed in 2008 and the nearest pump is 18 km away in Villanueva de las Torres. Mobile coverage is patchy: Vodafone works on the church steps, EE on the mirador, O2 nowhere at all.

If you expect gift shops, guided tours or craft beer on tap, keep driving. Diezma offers instead a slice of mountain life that hasn’t yet been repackaged for export. Stay for an hour, stay for a week – just remember to close the gate when you leave; the shepherd’s goats have no sense of private property.