Located just west of Granada, a few kilometers before the airport, any one passing through here on the busy A-329 would think of it as a rather non-descript place. However, it is exactly its proximity to Granada that gives it its illustrious history, which is added to by a rather tasty local pastry delight.Back in the late 15th century, when the Catholic Monarchs were planning their final attack on Granada, the last Moorish outpost left in Spain, they established a provisional camp at this location. However, it was a fire on June 14th 1483 that gave Isabella and Ferdinand the opportunity to create a more substantial bastion, which would impress the Moors with their determination to defeat them. Consequently, they decided to construct, in a period of 80 days in 1491, a new stone town, walled and surrounded by a moat, in the shape of a cross symbolizing the oncoming Christian victory over the Moors. Being defensively minded, they built fortified gates at the four cardinal points of the cross.

For many years the Monarchs had tried to overcome Abu Hassan and his son King Muhammed XI, better known to Spaniards as Boabdil. But it wasn’t until 1490, after most all the remaining Moorish strongholds had been overcome, that the latter called for negotiations leading to a truce. However, further skirmishes took place and it wasn’t until September of the following year that Boabdil renewed his plea for a negotiated truce, and received a list of very lenient demands known as the Capitulations. These called for no retributions against the Moors, allowed them to worship freely and guaranteed the Islamic culture. What’s more, the Catholic Monarchs even agreed to pay for repatriation to North Africa for those not wishing to live in a Christian country.

As a consequence, on November 25th 1491, Santa Catalina’s day, the Capitulations of the delivery of Granada were signed ending the Nasrid Kingdom and, on January 1st 1492 Boabdil personally handed over the keys of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs. On his way to exile, at an elevated point some 12 kms (7.5 miles) south of Granada he is supposed to have taken his last look at the fabulous city and cried. His mother, dismissively, told him not to cry like a woman for something he couldn’t defend as a man. Even now, this point the last place where the city can be seen from the south, is known as “The Suspiro de Moro”! The following year Santa Fe gained even more fame. In that era the accepted sea routes to the treasures of the Far East took sailors, dangerously, through lands controlled by Muslims. Looking for alternative routes, Christopher Columbus sought to persuade the Catholic Monarchs that there was a westerly sailing route to the Far East. This proved of attraction as it was considered that, at that time, there may have been Christian communities in that part of the world and, ever thoughtful of defeating Islam and recovering the Holy Land, the Catholic Monarchs acceded to Columbus’s plans. As a consequence, on April 17th 1492 the Capitulaciones de Santa Fe were signed by both the Monarchs and Columbus. Besides financing his voyage, these gave him title of “Major Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Viceroy and Governor General of any lands he discovered”.

Christopher Columbus set sail on August 3rd 1492 but, as everyone now knows, he never reached the Far East – on October 12th 1492 he discovered America. When the Catholic Monarchs finally left Santa Fe they named Don Francisco de Bobadilla as lord and ruler, and the town settled into its agricultural role in the centre of this very fertile plain irrigated by the River Genil. Towards the end of the 17th century oratorios were added on top of each gate, but these chapels are generally not open to the public. In those days, as now, the Plaza de España is found at the point where the cross meets, and it is possible to see all four gates from this central position.

In Ferdinand and Isabella’s time there was a Mudejar church here, but that was destroyed by an earthquake and later, during the reign of Carlos III, in the late 18th century, Santa Fe was reconstructed and the Spanish Neo-Classic style church of the Nuestra Señora de la Encarnacion was built from 1774-1885. Also found here is the Mudejar style City Council building.

Not disregarding this illustrious history there is one other, very tasty and famous culinary delicacy, that Santa Fe can lay claim to. In 1897 Ceferino Isla González opened his very own pastelería, Casa Ysla, on Calle Real, just off the Plaza de España in Santa Fe. He was particularly devoted to the Virgin Mary and, being in awe of Pope Pió IX who had, in 1854, defined the issue of Immaculate Conception – declaring that Mary was free from original sin, wanted to create a new pastry in the Pope’s honour.

What he came up with, layers of pastry rolled into a cylindrical shape, fermented with differing types of syrup and topped with a toasted cinnamon cream is more than delicious – it is habit forming. Next, came the problem of giving it a name, but that proved easy enough for Ceferino. Pope Pío was known as being particularly strict, often saying no to new ideas. So, simply enough, this new delight was called a Pionono. King Alfonso XIII was visiting locally in 1916 and dropped by the Casa Ysla to try this delicious treat. And so enamoured of it was he that he immediately granted the house title of official provider to the Royal Household.

To this day the Casa Ysla pastelería on Calle Real, 10, tel: 958 510 105; www.pionono.com; is still going strong and, highly unusually for Spain where closing for a midday siesta is still the norm, this shop, along with a handful of others in Granada itself, and one in Albolote, is open uninterrupted from early morning to late at night, on a seven day a week basis and even includes Christmas Day.A few meters from the Calle Real store, in a small plaza of the same name and just in front of the Puerta de Granada, is a statue of Ceferino Isla González himself.

Now, of course, not everyone can get to Santa Fe or Granada to taste these deliciously sweet pastries themselves; but those living, or visiting, in mainland Spain need not despair. There is a company in Granada, www.pionono.es, which offers home delivery in any region of Spain within 24-hours. What’s more, for those so concerned, they offer sugarless piononos with Omega-3 acid. Six can be ordered for Euros 11.90, whilst a dozen will cost Euros 21.90.Other towns such as Rute, in the province of Córdoba, not too far from Santa Fe actually, have their own Piononos but, curiously, they neither look nor taste like the real thing.

Santa Fe is just 11kms (nearly 7.5 miles) west of Granada and is either reached directly from the city on the A-329 or, more directly from the east and west, on the A-92.Back.