History of Güevéjar
Some Arab references suggest that there was a Roman road that left Granada, passing through Güevéjar, and arrived in Bailén, which was the main communications hub in eastern Baetica. Some studies mention the Güevéjar farmhouse (al-Qarya Wabasar) in the first half of the 14th century, and chronicles apply the toponyms Bobaxar and Vovexar to Güevéjar as Arabised forms of an earlier name. F. J. Simonet identifies it with the farmhouse called Ubexar, a toponym from before the arrival of the Arabs in Spain, which demonstrates that the town existed before the eighth century.
Almost the entire Moorish population left Güevéjar between 1570 and 1571, and the first settlers arrived to repopulate the area at the end of 1572 or the beginning of 1573.
The most tragic events to occur in Güevéjar in recent times were the result of two seismic movements: the first in the middle of the eighteenth century and the second in the last third of the nineteenth century. These drastically altered daily life in the district for a long period of time. On 1 November 1755, at around ten o'clock in the morning, the town experienced an earthquake lasting ten minutes, which caused almost all the houses to collapse. Granada has ideal characteristics for such phenomena to occur, distinguishing it from other Spanish provinces.
In that year, Güevéjar was inhabited by 323 people, but only five families remained in the village when the earthquake occurred, amounting to a maximum of twenty-five inhabitants. This represented less than 8% of the previous population, with the remaining 92% moving to places such as Calicasas and Nívar that were less severely affected by the earthquake. Of the approximately 70 houses that formed the urban area, 65 were ruined by the earthquake, representing 93% of the buildings. This figure alone speaks volumes about the catastrophic effects that the earthquake had on the town.
Despite the devastation, the neighbourhood quickly returned to rebuild the village, encouraged by the tax exemptions granted by the Crown.
On 25 December 1884, at around nine o'clock at night, a second powerful earthquake struck, reducing many towns in Granada and Málaga to rubble and causing 745 deaths and 1,501 injuries. The new Güevéjar was inaugurated on 25 June 1887.