14 LA CULTURA CARVING A NAME FOR ITSELF November 30th December 13th 2022
villages, has of Spain’s highest How Trevelez, one around its famous cured ham, built a tourist trade writes Jo Chipchase
southern Rio Trevelez, on the HE perfect destina- slopes of the mighty Mulhabenefits from tion for meat eaters, trip- cen, the village that’s ideal for hikers, and day is cool, clean airall year round. pers alike, Trevelez hams Alpujarra drying Alvarez of a high point of the highest According to Pilar IGP, the de Trevelez and one of Spain’s promotes metres (be- Jamon villages at 1,476 Teurel, at organisation that quality hind Valdelinares, the product’s highest practice of curing 1,695m). of the seal, the to ancient times, Located to the west ham dates used salt when the Romans to preserve food. a long hisThe pig also has dating back tory in the area, would centuries. Familiestheir own rear and slaughter the meat swine, and then use They ‘down to the trotters’. bodily parts would deploy all ‘morcilto make ‘chorizo’, normal la’ (blood sausage), hams, sausage, and cured ‘la called and have a fiesta to matanza’(the slaughter) celebrate their endeavours. key date fell For Trevelez, the ham proin 1862, when its permisducers were granted Isabel II’s, sion to use QueenSince then, seal of approval. back looked to be the town hasn’t on water is reputed ‘barrios’ – the and today, it is capitalising to become Trevelez has three There's ‘bracing’. Trevélez its hammy history Alta, Medio, and Bajo. For a smallish town, a tourist magnet. es- a 200m difference in altitude offers 37 bars and restauhas Trevelez have bottom Since 2021, ‘Fair of between the top and walk- rants, some of which Tripadvisor. tablished its annual Products’, of the town, as people five stars on Ham and Typical attracted ing up ‘Calle Cuesta’ will no- There’s a popular eatery in alwhich this yearall national- tice. Alto, La Fragua, alof visitors has ‘Trevelez’ de- Barrio 6,000 a museum The place name and could ei- though Barrio Bajo tourist ities, and opened been the main Valle- rives from Arab mayor, for the Ara- ways of ham (called ‘Museo ther mean ‘bellis’, or ‘velez’, zone – something that Segura, is jo’). bian word valley, Adrian Gallegos meaning three districts. working to change. GR7 hiking trail He explained to the Olive A town of slopes The ancient and through Trevelez that the recent instala natural, Press of ‘three little pigs’ – and bars Ber- runs the village boasts lation Barhouses, tiny Alpujarra’s underneath in dip pool models Built in the flat-roofed, coolBajo, that visitors enjoy in cute Alto, Meber tradition, with one each for barrio al- rio months – although dio, and Bajo – is intended to white houses, appearing each other, summer to explore most on top of encourage visitorsnot just the town, the whole can bottom barrio. Visitors cows, a also discover model eagle. boar, a fox and an the lead So, is Trevelez taking which has from Soportujar, spiinstalled model serpents, legs and ders, giant chicken draws witches? Soportujar with its visitors from far afield spooky theme. Adrian, “as “Not really,” says with we’ve been associated time, and ham for a long a new Soportujar invented two are ustheme, but the of the ing different versions encourage same tactic to tourists.”
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Feria of ham
ham live So, does the curedThe Olive up to its image? during Press visited Trevelez de Jamon’, its second ‘Feria . This on November 19-20 of all things was a celebration the inmeaty. We also found of loevitable congregationin their cals enjoying ‘copas’
Issue 408
Few mountain towns of have a true sense history, not to mention writes culinary offering, Jon Clarke
Beauty and the beast: Read about Hemingway’s favourite town of Ronda in our special supplement
see and it is easy to monof mountains’ a pew at any of the town Y the time of the collapse the in 1485, why. Take the Arabic empireentertain- uments dotted around will see dozRonda had been for not and chances are you that literally ing foreign visitors ens of faraway peaksthe National from far off 1500 years.oldest towns, in ring the town, de las Nieves on Park of Sierra One of Spain’s a thriving wine Parque Natural of Roman times it hadits own mint, fit- one side to thethe other. on industry and even row seat in a tendril of Grazalema Ronda is a true front tingly its coins bearing mounwith these nearby grapes. as a military history xxx Established in 9BC Continues on Page given the name bastion, it was ‘surrounded by meaning ‘Arunda’
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A MARBELLA lawyer has slammed a ‘heavy-handed’ police dawn raid over a VAT fraud that was splashed over social media. Antonio Flores is furious that 12 armed cops, wearing balaclavas, blocked the main road to seize paperwork relating to two clients of Moroccan families. The boss of Lawbird, a well known Marbella firm, told the Olive Press the action by the Guardia Civil was ‘totally unwarranted’ and they had since apologised. “It’s a matter we had already been talking to the tax authorities over and we have absolutely nothing to hide,” he revealed last night.
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The clients in question are believed to be inadvertently caught up in a €2.2 billion VAT fraud across Europe - the largest ever investigated in the EU. The two Moroccan families, described by Flores as ‘victims’, had hired a Portuguese company to transfer funds to Marbella for a property purchase as Moroccans are forbidden from sending money directly to Europe. Flores explained: “In doing so, they [the Portuguese company] faked invoices to pretend they were buying electronic items from Lawbird, and claimed the VAT back in Portugal. “The sum involved here is €500,000, of which they claimed €100,000.” The Portuguese firm had used the Marbella law firm to do the conveyancing for the property in Portugal. “It is always complicated for Morrocans to UNHAPPY: Flores slammed the raid
RAID: Balaclava-clad cops outside the Lawbird office buy in Europe, but we had no idea they [the Portuguese company] would later alter the invoice and commit fraud,” continued Flores, who has hundreds of expat clients around Spain.
False
According to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Portuguese company would create false invoices for the sale of mobile phones, tablets, earphones and other electronic devices, with which they could then claim huge tax deductions. They call it ‘the most profitable crime in the EU’, costing around €50 billion annually in tax losses to member states. Flores explained he had heard about the 8am raid on Tuesday morning, when one of his fellow lawyers phoned him about the ‘armed police’ at the door. “I was just getting ALL AREAS dressed and rushed COVERED into the office to find three police cars block4G UNLIMITED ing the main Ricardo Soriano highway, INTERNET while balaclava cops paced around outside. IDEAL FOR “Anyone passing STREAMING TV would think it was a drugs raid or they were ALSO looking for terrorists. IPTV,
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Dawn raid against Marbella law firm as part of €2 billion European tax fraud investigation leaves lawyer outraged
Royal scandal
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“It was very heavy-handed, particularly as we quickly gave them all the information and paperwork they wanted. In fact, we gave them more than they asked for. “They ended up being quite apologetic and said it will be smoothed out easily. I hope so.” Photos of the raid ended up on the local Marbella se queja social media site yesterday morning, sparking claims it was over ‘a corruption case’. The Olive Press reported how five years ago, the Lawbird boss was accused of attacking a local hotel with a hand grenade.
Attack
The boss of now-shut Sisu hotel, in Puerto Banus, claimed he was behind the midnight attack. Our front page story in 2017 reported on the hotel releasing CCTV footage which showed a man dousing its interior with petrol, before lobbing in a hand grenade. The hotel then burnt down in mysterious circumstances in the summer of 2021, adding fuel to this claim but it has never been proven. Guardia Civil confirmed to the Olive Press that officers raided the premises this morning, but could not reveal any further details. “This is an open and ongoing investigation,” a spokesman said on Tuesday afternoon.
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