Estepa Seville sevilla andalucia spain

ESTEPA - SEVILLE

The town of Estepa is situated near the southern uplands in the south eastern city of Seville, being adjacent to the city of Córdoba. It is located approximately 24 km at the eastern part of Osuna, and is widely popular the biscuits known as “polvorones” and “mantecados”. The town of Estea’s native bakers make these delicacies each and every Christmas, and are of course among the favorites of the people of Andalusia. As of February, year 2008, their documented population reached up to nearly 12,547 inhabitants. The entire town extends up to 202.42 Km2, with a population density of 63.6 inhabitants per Km2, and is situated within the countryside along the foothills of Subbética, a height of 604 m and 110 km from Seville, which is the city capital of the town.


The entire town was declared as a Historic-Artistic site during the year 1965 due to the fact that there are numerous religious and archeological landmarks as well as superb, picturesque views situated at the said town.


In the beginning, the town of Estepa was repopulated by the Romans from their other colonizations and then referred to the town as “Ostipo” in spite the fact that they themselves were evicted by the Visgoths from the Baltic regions, four centuries after. During the 8th century, the Moorish armies who had captured the south-western part of the town in 711 C.E. took over the town and altered its name to “Istabba”.


Estepa is well-known for its pastries. Their famous shortbread and “polvorones”, confectionery and other home sweets varied widely and were produced frequently in numerous houses for different celebrations and gatherings such as baptisms, communions or weddings, and of course, this includes their celebration of Christmas and local holidays.


As previously mentioned, the entire town was declared as an Artistic-Historic site during 1965, being declared so, the town of Estefa is therefore surrounded and filled with spectacular and fascinating landmarks as well as picturesque views of the old buildings and the entire town. A few of these monumental landmarks are:


The Archeological Museum, the “Museo Padre Martin Recio” (calle Ancha 14) which has a collection of local antiquities which dates back during the Paleothic period, and religious relics from the Roman, Visgothic, Arabic and subsequent civilizations such as the interesting Roman “hypnos”, or the statue of the god of sleep.


The “Central Plaza El Carmen”, as the name describes, was constructed in honor of the Virgin Carmen. It was expanded during the year 1745 in order to accommodate the plaza de toros bullring.


Another, is the City Walls, surrounding the old town located at the San Cristobal hill, which was first built during the 10th century by the Moors, and then renovated by Almohad conquerers during the 12th century, and then again reconstructed once more when the town of Estepa fell under the Christian Order of Santiago, during the 13th century.


Others include the “Palacio De Los Marqueses De Cerverales”, Convent of Santa Clara, Antiguo Alcázar, Torre Del Homenaje, and a lot more. These are merely a number of the exquisite monuments located at the said town and in fact, there are a lot more that can not be further described by merely words or photographs.


Being that the entire town is well-known due to its delicious pastries, the town of Estepa in fact smells like a bakery especially during Christmas, as their local bakers, and even those who were merely at home works hard to meet the demand for everybody’s favorite “icing-covered polvorone biscuits”. Interesting fact is that several bakeries allow and even invite visitors inside their bakery so that they can be able to observe the entire baking procedure. Further, in honor of their tradition regarding their passion towards baking and eating delicious pastries, the La Estepeña biscuit factory opened a small museum in order to illustrate the history of Estepa’s biscuit traditions.