The clay landscapes and caves of Benalúa and the Hermitage of St. Torcuato of Face Retama

Spain is a country with very diverse landscapes. Some of them are truly fascinating, like those you can see in Benalúa.

Vereda de la Estrella, a beautiful Spanish mountain route in the Sierra Nevada
Moclín, its fortifications from the Spanish Civil War and the spectacular Gollizno route

Our friends from Aventuras Entresierras (a YouTube channel I highly recommend you subscribe to) traveled to that place in the Guadix region (Granada), in Eastern Andalusia, to do a walking route through its impressive clay landscapes, which are populated with ancient caves that were used in the past as dwellings.

During this journey, the explorers, led by the intrepid quadruped Alfred, passed by the Hermitage of St. Torcuato of Face Retama plain, in the aforementioned municipality of Benalúa. It was here that the first bishop of Guadix was martyred, the eldest of the seven apostolic men who were disciples of Saint James the Apostle. Saint Torcuato was ordained bishop by Saints Peter and Paul in Rome and evangelized Spain, being killed for his faith in the year 66 on the site now occupied by the hermitage. I leave you with this interesting video (the video is in Spanish; you can activate automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

You can see some screenshots from the video here, as a brief preview, since its protagonists visit quite a few interesting places and it wasn't easy to select just a few. Here we see an example of the gully landscapes that are characteristic of this area.

Some of the caves you can see in the area. These are the simplest ones. In the video you can see some truly spectacular ones, both for their appearance and their location.

The Hermitage of San Torcuato de Face Retama. This temple was built in the 16th century on the site where, according to tradition, that saint was martyred.

We end with this image of the intrepid Alfred walking along a rambla, a bed of rainwater that remains dry for most of the year.