HISTORY
Since ancient times, La Peza has been a key point on the route connecting the eastern peninsula with the Genil Valley and the Vega de Granada. Its strategic location would have made it an attractive place for early human settlement, as it was more accessible than the route through the entire Sierra Nevada. Therefore, La Peza must have been an obligatory stop for the Basques who founded the ancient city of Ilíberis (modern-day Granada), as well as for the Romans, who diverted from this small village to the Via Augusta en route to Cástulo. La Peza was thus situated in the middle of the traditional route linking Guadix and Almería with Granada, which was also widely travelled during the Middle Ages.
In 1489, El Zagal, the Nasrid Emir of Granada, surrendered the territories around Granada to the Catholic Monarchs. However, when the German doctor and traveller Jerónimo Münzer visited the area in 1495, he noted that La Peza still retained a Muslim influence. This significant Arab presence is also reflected in the ancient names of rural areas such as: Alconaytar, Alcambra, and Oveledín.
La Peza was an important population centre under Arab rule, with several mosques built to meet the needs of the faithful. Following the arrival of the Christians, most of these mosques were converted into churches, including the chapels of San Marcos, San Francisco, Santa Lucía and San Sebastián. Similarly, the main mosque was converted and later demolished to make way for the town's first church, which was destroyed during the Alpujarras rebellion. Construction of the new temple began immediately afterwards, and it can be seen today.
In 1631, Pedro Tesifón de Moctezuma, the Count of Moctezuma and a great-grandson of the last Aztec emperor, purchased the town of La Peza and transformed it into a manor. From then on, it was renamed Monterrosano de La Peza. After several uprisings over payments of tariffs the town passed to the Spanish Crown again in 1693.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the town experienced another unique episode with the French invasion: the mayor Manuel Atienza 'El Carbonero' resisted their passage. In his work El Carbonero Alcalde, the writer Pedro Antonio de Alarcón recounts the feat of the councillor and his neighbours, who, in the spring of 1810 during the Napoleonic siege, made a cannon from an oak trunk. When used by the local people, the cannon exploded into a thousand pieces, sowing death and panic on both sides. However, the French army finally took the town and captured its mayor after a fierce fight, given their superiority in terms of resources and troops. Instead of accepting his captivity, he broke the baton of command in front of the French general and threw himself from the steep Tajo de Barruecos ravine.