THE FACTOR

Setenil De Las Bodegas

It’s amazing how people can take even the most unusual of environments and find a way to build their homes. Setenil De Las Bodegas is one such place. Located in the Andalucía province of Spain, it has a history that dates back thousands of years. It inhabitants have carved away the walls of the gorge and built their houses into the recesses - homes that have been built and rebuilt over the centuries and are occupied to this day. Ancient rock looms over the main street, and in one place there are houses that have a million tons of rock above them and on top of that rock, there are even more houses.

Named after its once flourishing wineries - bodegas its white houses seem to emerge from the rocks, and some have rock roofs and even olive groves on their roofs. People chose to settle here for practical reasons. The natural caves turned out to be ideal living quarters; rather than having to build entire houses to keep out the heat in the summer and the cold in the winter, all they needed to build was a facade. It is believed people have been living here since pre-historic times. Today, there are around 3000 inhabitants (quite literally) - living under a rock.