Old town · Los Reales Pósitos
Los Reales Pósitos
The village grain bank, and its red-brick arches
Set into the fabric of the old town, on Calle Real, are Los Reales Pósitos, a public grain store the Counts of Frigiliana had built in 1767. A pósito was a grain bank: it kept a reserve to secure the villagers’ supply — and their seed for the next sowing — through bad harvest years. The structure is now folded into private houses, but its well-kept red-brick arches still stand clear of the surrounding whitewash, a central witness to how Frigiliana fed and financed itself.
- 1767
- Built by the Counts of Frigiliana
- Pósito
- A grain bank against bad harvests
- 3 naves
- Once three naves of round arches
- Privado
- Now folded into private houses
The 1767 date and the pósito function are confirmed by the municipal and local heritage record; the institution itself is older than the building. The structure is private today; the arches are seen from the lane, not from inside.
What a pósito was
A public bank made of grain
Before there were rural credit banks, there were pósitos. A pósito stored communal grain and lent it out: seed for the next planting, bread grain to carry families through a lean winter, to be paid back after the harvest. Frigiliana had one before it had this building — the institution is documented here from 1749, and probably goes back to 1640, when the village became a villa in its own right — and the 1767 store gave it a lasting home: a buffer against the bad years in a village whose living came off steep, uncertain land.
A public store of grain, built so a failed harvest need not mean a hungry winter.
The red arches
What to look for from the lane
The tell is the brickwork. Where the rest of the old town is whitewashed, the Pósitos keep a run of red-brick arches — the surviving arcaded front of a once-larger store, with its vaulted cellars still below — well preserved and unmistakable against the lime. The building has since been absorbed into private houses, so this is a look-up-as-you-pass sight rather than a visit, and there is no coat of arms to find here (that belongs to the Fuente Vieja) — but once you know the arches, you cannot walk past them without seeing the grain store hidden in the wall.
Economic history
The other half of the sugar story
El Ingenio tells the grand economy of Frigiliana — the lords, the cane, the sugar. The Pósitos tell the everyday one: how ordinary households were kept from hunger when a harvest failed. Read together, the two buildings give the fuller picture — a working village that lived off difficult land and built the institutions to survive its bad years.
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
Spot the arches on your walk
The Reales Pósitos are woven into the lanes of the old town, minutes from Casa AMARA. Note the red arches as you pass, then carry the thread on to El Ingenio, where the village’s bigger economy is still at work.