History of Las Gabias
To find the first signs of human presence in Las Gabias, one must go back several thousand years, as confirmed by the ancient Roman Villa of Las Gabias. With Roman rule, the population moved to a nearby area, where an important Roman settlement was located. The ruins of an oil mill and some dwellings have been discovered, but the only visible feature of the site is the cryptoporticus. Roman remains have recently been discovered in the hamlet of Híjar.
During the period of Muslim rule, the municipality was called Gaviar Alcobra. According to the historian, Almagro Cárdenas, the word Gabia comes from Gaviar, which means a place abundant in holes, because there was apparently an Iberian colony in this area dedicated to exploiting the gypsum quarries in nearby Montevive.
From the Muslim occupation, the Torreón, an Arab fortress located in the centre of Gabia Grande, remains. Historically, the Torreón played an important role in the defence of the city of Granada until it was captured by the Christians in 1490. That same year, King Fernando de Aragón ordered its demolition, although this was never carried out.
The modern history of Las Gabias begins with the Christian Reconquista and the repopulation undertaken by Felipe II, which brought settlers from various parts of the Iberian Peninsula. In the seventeenth century, historians, when referring to both places, called them Gavia la Grande and Gavia la Chica. In the nineteenth century, the “v” was replaced by a “b”, resulting in the definitive names Gabia Grande, with its annex of Híjar, and Gabia Chica as two independent municipalities, with the name Las Gabias never appearing in any of these references.
Until the nineteenth century, the town belonged to the Condado de Gavia and was one of the most prosperous and important towns in the province, with a booming tile industry and the cultivation of flax, hemp, and sugar beets, until tobacco cultivation took over at the beginning of the twentieth century. Las Gabias was officially formed in 1973, with the merger of the former municipalities of Gabia Grande and Gabia Chica.