History of Cabrera (the recent years)

The modern history of Cabrera begins just over twenty years ago, and is the brainchild of one man: Peter Grosscurth. Peter was an English architect who had already designed and built houses in Cortijo Grande, but most of all he was visionary who turned a bare hillside and a couple of ruins into a village. Although he died in 1993, the modern Cabrera remains a place that was his creation, and still runs true to the principles that he set down.

When he first decided to build houses up on the side of the Sierra Cabrera, people thought that he was crazy, but he persisted with an energy that was ferocious. He walked in front of the bulldozer to actually mark out the roads to make the building feasible. It was he who conceived the seemingly outrageous idea of building a modern castle and walls around the old Moorish buildings and putting real grass bowling greens in front. Naturally, the iconic Cabrera arch was his idea too.

The sceptics were legion. Everybody told him it could not be done. But he persisted and planned and worked and schemed and fought. It could not have been an easy battle, but thankfully for all of us in Cabrera today, he succeeded where most others would have given up.

Today Cabrera remains largely true to his concept. Each house is built in a moorish style, and painted in a terracotta colour that blends into the surroundings. The village is timeless.

this is a very simplified picture of the modern story of cabrera. soon, we will have a much more comprehensive tale of the evolution of cabrera, written by one of the people who was here from the beginning.