The church of Santa María de Gracia was built in the 16C and is certainly one of the most beautiful in the Western Alpujarras (the part of the range near Granada).

This place has been used as a film backdrop, a typical village in the American Wild West: wooden houses, saloon, bank... Today, shows with fighting and gunshots are held here. A little zoo and African museum have opened nearby.

The fine Renaissance portal of this 16C church is very much like that of the cathedral, in both its position and the techniques used. Note the superb relief of St James the "Matamore". The saint's attributes, shells and patriarchal cross decorate the spaces between the columns. Below the church stands a tower with arches on the lower level. Nearby, the old 11C Arab cisterns which used to provide the town's water.

The Copper Age site 19km north-east of Almería was once a village. Between 2 700 BC and 1 800 BC it had up to 1 500 inhabitants. You can see the remains of a defence system with walls and outpost forts, as well as ruined circular dwellings, and a necropolis containing a hundred collective tombs buried beneath an earth tumulus.