HISTORY
Accitania is one of the oldest human settlements in Europe. Located very close to Benalúa, but within the municipality of Fonelas, are the Paleolithic sites of Solana del Zamborino and the Argaric culture site of Cerro del Gallo. Fossilised animal remains, stoneware and Argaric pottery, as well as copper tools, have been found at these sites. While some historians place the Iberian and Roman settlement of Acci near Benalúa, the remains found suggest that it was located in present-day Guadix.
Benalúa, for its part, originated from an indigenous population embedded in the dispersed settlement that was pre-Roman Acci. Iberian settlements dotted the hills of the region near La Vega and the mining basin of the Marquisate of Zenete. When Acci was founded in the first century, present-day Benalúa was nothing more than a scattered settlement arranged along one of the branches of the Herculean Way.
From the eighth century onwards, the Ragi’a tribe settled in Benalúa after the arrival of the Moors. At that time, Benalúa was a hamlet within the larger district of Wadi-as (Guadix) that was dedicated to agricultural exploitation. It consisted of a group of caves that were protected by towers.
Following the Reconquista, the population became more dispersed, living on farms of various sizes. By the seventeenth century, Benalúa had its own hermitage, although it was still dependent on the parish of Fonelas. The land registry records of Fonelas show that people began settling in Benalúa in 1675. In the 18th century, Benalúa was a village in the Guadix district, part of the estate of the Count of Alcudia.
The Benalúa town council was formed in 1836, marking the beginning of fifty years of litigation with Guadix, who refused to recognise the hamlet's segregation. At the end of the nineteenth century, the railway arrived in Benalúa with the inauguration of the Linares–Almería line. Between 1912 and 1913, the sugar factory was built. For many years, it was the driving force behind the town’s development and one of the area's main industries. In 1945, residents of the Camarate neighbourhood (colloquially known as the Guadix neighbourhood) petitioned the authorities and Accitano Town Hall to secede from the latter and join Benalúa Town Hall. This process began in 1969 and was not completed until 1972.
In the last decade of the 20th century, the area, known until then as “Benalúa de Guadix” to distinguish it from the other Benalúa in the province, was officially renamed “Benalúa”.