"The day of October 30th, after midday, leaving Málaga and crossing some very high mountains like the Portalón, and also some valleys, where the King in time of war had had constructed a marvelous road to transport war matériel, passing on the left Ronda and Marbella, and many other villages and inns, we arrived the third day at Osuna, the city of the Marqués of Cádiz. We saw more than three hundred Saracens bound in chains there. Also, Marchena and Mairena, fortified plazas belonging to the same Marqués, were brimming with prisoners."
What Münzer Saw:
This was still of late Reconquest Country—at least the southern part of it. The landscape in this region is extremely beautiful, with cultivated high hills and valleys. Unlike along the Mediterranean coast, the farmland here is not terraced; rows of olive trees and other abundant crops are not only in the valleys, but are planted in rows straight over the hills. The abundance of castles along the way suggests the conflicts recent or older. In the town of Osuna, awnings covering the main street, though not described by Münzer, reflect ancient near-eastern traditions.
What Münzer Couldn’t Have Seen:
We think of the landscape as unchanging in its shape, but this is still earthquake country, and because of this, the shape of the landscape has changed, though only geologists could note the specific alterations. Even 50 years ago, the roads, certainly an improvement over Münzer’s time, were often single-lane, and off the main highways, dirt. What took the Germans days of travel were much faster in 1961, but are even faster and better now. What would the travelers have thought about cars, paved roads, wind generators, electricity, elevators and all the glassed-in stores? Did someone do laundry for them? He mentions being given clothes in Valencia by German merchants, but how much did they carry with them? Who guided them at night?
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