Old town · Casa del Apero
Casa del Apero
From farm store to the village’s cultural heart
Just below the church stands the Casa del Apero, once the farm annex of El Ingenio — the granary, stables and store for the apero, the sugar estate’s working gear. Restored in the 1990s, it is now the practical heart of the old town: the municipal library, the Frigiliana archaeological museum, the historical archive and the tourist office all share its courtyard. If you want current opening times, a festival programme or a village map, this is where to ask.
- 17. Jh.
- Built as El Ingenio’s farm annex
- 1990er
- Restored into the cultural centre
- Patio
- Courtyard plan, rammed earth and brick
- 4-in-1
- Library · museum · archive · tourist office
Dating and uses from municipal and heritage sources; opening hours, admission and the museum’s holdings are current checks, not fixed facts.
Visit & location
- Location
- On the Cuesta del Apero, just above the Plaza del Ingenio.
- Distance
- About 500 m as the crow flies from Casa AMARA — roughly a ten-minute walk, step-free and gently downhill, with a short climb up at the end.
- Access
- A public building: the courtyard and tourist office are free to enter, and the ground floor is step-free.
- Best time
- Morning, as a first stop — pick up current maps and programmes at the tourist office.
The name
The apero of the sugar estate
Apero means the working gear of a farm — the tools, the tackle, the animals’ harness. In the early seventeenth century this building was exactly that for El Ingenio next door: a granary, stables and store that kept the cane estate running. The two buildings belong together, and reading them side by side is the quickest way to picture how sugar shaped the lower village.
The store that kept the sugar estate running is now where the village keeps its memory.
The fabric
A courtyard in earth and brick
The building keeps a plain, working character: a rectangular plan set around an interior courtyard, two storeys, walls of rammed earth laid between courses of stone, and arches, pillars and a main doorway of brick. It was made to store and to shelter, not to impress — and that honesty is part of its charm on a slow walk through the lower lanes.
Today
The cultural heart of the village
After the town acquired the building in the early 1980s and restored it through the 1990s, the Casa del Apero became the place where village life gathers: the municipal library, the Frigiliana archaeological museum, a temporary-exhibition hall, the historical archive and the tourist office. It is the natural first stop on an old-town walk — but treat opening times, admission and what is currently on show as things to check on the day.
Your direct-booking advantage
What we recommend to friends is in the Guest Guide.
Book directly with us and the AMARA Guest Guide for Frigiliana comes with your stay: the addresses we give our friends, and the details that make the day easier.
- Our addresses in Frigiliana: restaurants, beaches, walks, some of them only there
- The way from your front door, in minutes
Pick up a map here, then step out to neighbouring El Ingenio before you take the ceramic-panel walk up into the lanes of the Barribarto.
Start here, then walk the old town
The Casa del Apero sits at the foot of the old town, about a ten-minute walk below Casa AMARA.