Details

La Alfoquia is a town within the municipality of Zurgena with a mix of nationalities enjoying the traditions and customs of this loality.

The town is made up of around a thousand inhabitants, situated o­n the left bank of the Almanzora River.  By the various studies and consultations carried out to diverse levels, it can be affirmed that the Arabian word, FOQUIA (AL, would be the article) signifies something that is higher than something else.  "The High o­ne", "The High Thing", "The Upper Thing", but in reference to another lower... thing!

Because of it, it is thought that the Arabs that inhabited the nucleus of Zurgena, when they crossed the river, they distinguished among the lower part of the plantation plots named Tamarchete and the o­ne that was above them, Alfoquia.

The beginnings of the urban area of Alfoquia was limited, in its origins, to diverse farmhouses disseminated along the "Pago de Alfoquia", of where took its name.  When the Lorca-Baza railroad was inaugurated in 1894, some constructions for storage of the products were initiated that arrived or left for the railroad.  This meant that the workers and their families needed housing and so the population actually grew from workers from many different places.  The growth occured slowly but surely over 60 years giving it a cosmopolitan population from the start.

Without doubt, La Alfoquia owes its true origin to the railroad, in fact during almost all of the 20th Century, the town was known as The Station and was o­nly given that of Alfoquia in the official media of the Town Hall of Zurgena.

The so named "House or Store of the Aunt Magdalene" was o­ne of the symbolic buildings of La Alfoquia until May 30^th, 1997 when the machines, due to their poor state, put an end to it.  The house was a witness to all kinds of activities:Dwelling, goods Depot for wheat, Christmas celebrations, anniversaries, weddings, etc.

Since the establishment of the railroad, La Alfoquia supplied itself with water by installing tubing descendeding from Tijola.In July 18^th of 1963, during the times of Franco, the building of the pipeline was started, the o­nly fault that the system had was that the water came from sand banks in the Almanzora. 

Being of very bad quality, drinking water was limited to that brought to the town by R.E.N.F.E. (Spanish Rail).Three taps were installed in different parts of the town to provide water for public general use, soon after, groups of and individual neighbours begun to tap into the water supply, redirecting the water to their homes.