How cane came to Motril
Cane reached the Granada coast long before anyone drew the borders of a Granada province. Records of its cultivation in al-Andalus, in the territory that later became the Kingdom of Granada, go back to the 10th century.[6] A local history of Motril reckons the industry then ran, more or less without interruption, for almost a thousand years, from Muslim al-Andalus into the last third of the 20th century.[7] Chroniclers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, writing about the late 15th and early 16th centuries, speak of fourteen sugar factories in Motril and one in the hamlet of Pataura, a count that documents have not confirmed.[21]
Inland, that same medieval Granada left the very different landscape described in the Morisco villages of the Alpujarras. Down on the coast the money was in the Guadalfeo valley, where cane was the crop that mattered.
By the time the last fields went out of production, cane had been grown in the area for more than 1,000 years.[4] Hold that number in mind, because it is the reason a small rum bodega in Motril is worth a detour. Ron Montero is not a heritage gimmick. It is a survivor of an industry that shaped the town.
Seven factories and one tall chimney
By 1860 Motril had up to seven sugar factories running on industrial technology.[5] Family names from that boom still turn up in the local histories. Martín Larios built Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza in 1862, and the partnership Burgos, Domínguez y García raised Nuestra Señora del Pilar, which one local history dates to 1883;[9] other municipal material puts it a year or two earlier.
The Pilar is the one to remember because it lasted. After a modernisation in 1929-30 it was grinding about a third of the cane of the Vega del Guadalfeo,[10] so a third of the valley's harvest passed through a single factory. If you learn only one name from this list, make it the Pilar: it has the standing chimney, the steam-engine history and a museum project attached.
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Two words help when you read about these buildings. An ingenio is the older kind of mill and a fábrica the steam-era factory; the museum behind the Casa de la Palma stands on the remains of the first, the Pilar is the second. Cane was not the coast's only crop either, and the chirimoya of the Costa Tropical has a history of its own.
Two closures, twenty-two years apart
The date people mix up is the ending. Motril's Pilar stopped in 1984, having kept a steam engine as its main source of power to the very last.[12] Salobreña's Nuestra Señora del Rosario, built by Joaquín Agrela in 1861 and later billed as the only cane factory left in Europe,[8] was the last on the Costa Tropical to cease, in 2006.[2]
A closing date quoted on a leaflet or a label usually belongs to one factory or the other, so check which. A visitor who expects a working mill in either town will be disappointed; what survives is museums, a chimney and a rum bodega.
- 10th century
Cane recorded in al-Andalus
Records from the territory that became the Kingdom of Granada.[6]
- 1860
Up to seven factories in Motril
Mills with industrial technology were running.[5]
- 1929-30
Pilar modernised
Afterwards it ground about a third of the valley's cane.[10]
- 1963
Ron Montero founded
By Francisco Montero Martín.[1]
- 1984
Pilar stops
Motril's factory closes after keeping steam power to the end.[12]
- 2006
Rosario stops
Salobreña's factory is the last on the Costa Tropical to cease.[2]
Francisco Montero's bodega
Ron Montero was founded in 1963 by Francisco Montero Martín, from a family that owned important sugar factories and distilleries, among them the Guadalfeo and Montero sugar factories.[1][14] A 2015 study by Andalusia's heritage institute describes the family-run Azucarera Montero distillery as still producing at the time.[22] Sugar was a hard trade: in the 1970s Azucarera Montero bought cane harvesters from Australia, machines that struggled on the valley's small plots.[13]
In the cellar the rum ages slowly in virgin American oak by the solera and criaderas system,[15][23] in which younger rum is blended into older barrels in stages. Motril's tourist board lists four bottlings:[24]
- Ron Pálido, the traditional bottling
- Ron Plata
- Ron Montero Reserva
- Ron Francisco Montero, a rum for special occasions
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According to Difford's Guide, Joaquín Martín Montero, the founder's nephew, bought the distillery in 2007, and his daughter Andrea Martín Targa manages it.[16] The same entry calls him director of the last sugar cane cultivator in Europe and of the only molasses distillery in Spain, which is directory wording rather than an official ranking: a second rum bodega works at Lobres, ageing in American oak.[17] A dated enthusiast's review adds that Montero still cuts its own cane and makes its molasses from it,[25] so what goes into the still today is reported two ways and worth asking about on the tour. The defensible claim is one of the last.
What to visit in Motril today
Start with the Museo Preindustrial de la Caña de Azúcar, which sits behind the Casa de la Palma, on the remains of a 16th-century ingenio.[18] Over more than 1,000 square metres it lays out how sugar was made and sold between the 13th and 18th centuries,[19] the pre-industrial story that came before the Pilar's steam era.
For the industrial chapter, head for the Pilar. Its 45-metre chimney, built in 1929-30, still stands,[11] and the factory is being restored as the Museo Industrial del Azúcar.[20] Check with the town hall for its opening status before you plan around it.
Recommended tours
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Three stops make a sensible half day in Motril:
- The sugar museum behind the Casa de la Palma, for the pre-industrial process
- The Pilar factory, for the chimney and the future industrial museum
- The Ron Montero bodega, for the rum itself
Motril's tourism guide lists free guided tours Tuesday to Saturday at 12, with other languages on a week's request,[26] and the Andalucía listing gives the same noon slot.[3] Listings differ on whether you can simply turn up, so phone the bodega before you go.
Check before you drive down
Visit days, times and prices for the bodega, the sugar museum and the Pilar site can change. The tourism listing's Tuesday-to-Saturday noon visit is a starting point, so confirm with the bodega and Motril's tourist office before leaving Granada.[3]
Use the coast for the rest of the day. Sea kayaking on the Costa Tropical starts from La Herradura, and the boquerones of the Costa Tropical are the obvious seafood order afterwards. Go in the morning if you can, so the museum, the chimney and a long coastal lunch all fit around a noon bodega visit.