Details

The full name of this village is Pasillo de Fiñana (the Walkway of Fiñana), because it is situated in the valley that runs between the Sierra de Baza and the Sierra de Nevada.  The name Finana (with an ñ from the Spanish alphabet) also originates from the Latin term “finis” meaning limit or border and it seems so apt.  As you drive up the new dual carriageway that runs from Almeria to Granada, it is incredible how the landscape changes as the road swoops up through the desert of Tabernas and continues to climb into a different landscape, still bleak, but with the mountains o­n each side turning greener by the minute as you travel higher.

By the time you reach Finana you are indeed o­n the edge of a very different Spain, a land where the winters are harsh and the snows o­n the mountains above cause the streams to rush downwards in the spring to the river waiting greedily below.  Finana is also o­n the railway line between Almeria and Granada and has o­ne of the few stations that have remained open.

The Arabs occupied Finana until the town became a part of the Crown of
Castile December 29, 1489.  During the length of this stay the Arabs exercised great influence o­n the village (as they did throughout Spain).

This is still evident today in the layout of the streets, especially in the
neighbourhood of the Citadel and in the high part of the village.  The
irrigation system of ditches and the traditional water mills can also still be
traced.  However, o­n the nights of the 28th and 29th of December the Catholic Kings spent the night in Finana, o­n their way from Almeria to Granada at the outset of the great campaign that earned them the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada and the expulsion of the Moors.

A man named Lucius Alfenua Avitianus came from Finana and he became a
personage of doubtless political and social prestige, by-product of his brilliant military career, developed in the city of Rome and of course the villagers are rightly proud of this fact.

Finana has entered a process of development, initiated at the beginning of the 1980's which was maintained through the 1990's.  Construction has created
stability, the population has stayed and the sector services have expanded.  Now o­ne can not o­nly bars and small shops here, but also a Secondary School, Notary and a Dental Clinicas well as family businesses such as a carpentry, bakery and metallic carpentry.  Its infrastructure has recently been complemented by the construction of a Sport and Recreation Centre which includes a Municipal Pool, Theatre and Library.