Guadix: tinggal di dalam gua, sejam dari Granada

Guadix, about an hour east of Granada, is famous for its cave houses: homes dug into the hillside, with white chimneys sticking out of the slope. They stay cool in summer and mild in winter. It makes a good day trip, and some people end up buying one.

Two thousand homes dug into the hill

The cave quarter, the Barrio de las Cuevas, is the highest part of town. It has almost two thousand cave homes, and many of them are still lived in. Guadix itself has fewer than twenty thousand people. Walk through in the late afternoon, when it feels like an ordinary neighbourhood.

Why the rooms stay at 18 to 20 degrees

Inside a cave it stays at 18 to 20 °C all year. The earth around the rooms changes temperature very slowly, so the heat of the day and the cold of the night do not reach inside. In August a cave is pleasantly cool. In winter it is milder than you might expect, but you still need a heater and a chimney that works well.

The ground does the work that thick walls do elsewhere.

The cathedral and the Alcazaba

The cathedral was built between the 16th and 18th centuries on the site of an older mosque, so it mixes several styles. The front is Baroque. It is worth a look inside.

Above the old town is the Alcazaba, an old Moorish fort. Go up for the view.

The cave museum

Start at the cave museum, the Centro de Interpretación Cuevas de Guadix, on Plaza Padre Poveda. It is a real cave house where one family lived from 1928 to 1980. The visit takes about half an hour and explains what you will see in the streets afterwards.

The badlands of the Geopark

Around Guadix is the Granada Geopark, a UNESCO-protected area of 4,722 km². It is known for its badlands: bare, eroded hills cut by gullies and canyons up to 250 metres deep. Visit the Badlands de Gorafe and the Don Diego viewpoint to see the soft rock that made cave homes possible. Caves in the morning and badlands in the afternoon make a full day.

Sleeping in a cave

You can also stay the night in a cave house; there are several to rent in the area. Before you book, ask about heating, ventilation and damp. Caves are pleasant in summer but can feel damp in the wet months, and a good host will show you how they keep it dry.

Buying a cave house: what to check

If you are thinking of buying a cave, check three things. First, the legal side: is the cave registered as a home, and does the registered description match what you see? Second, damp and air: where could water get in, how are the rooms ventilated, and does the chimney work? Third, any plans to extend, because that needs planning permission before any building work.

Use a Spanish lawyer to check the property register and the planning position, and a surveyor who knows cave houses. The buying process is the same as for any home in Spain: see our guide to buying costs in Spain.

Guadix works as a day trip from the coast or from Granada. For more ideas, read our guides to Granada and the Alhambra and the Alpujarras. The coast guide lists the towns if you are still choosing where to stay.