Rescued puppies lead to a small miracle.

Double miracle in Churriana Credit: Shutterstock

It all started as a normal daily stroll for a resident of Churriana, a walk in the countryside with his two dogs. By chance he stumbled across two young puppies who had been buried alive on the side of what appeared to be a small hill. The puppies were successfully rescued and have found loving homes, but the miracle doesn’t end here. On rescuing the puppies, it seems that the place where they had been buried was a collection of ancient buildings: a church and prayer rooms which the Christians used during the time of Muslim rule.

The site was quickly visited by retired archaeologist Carlos Gozalbes.

In his report, Gozalbes has explained that in one of the caves there is a Mozarabic church with three naves and several niches, and on the part of the wall by the altar there are numerous inscriptions and signs from the Mozarabic era, although they are barely perceptible now. He said the alignment of the writing and almost uniform height of the words could mean that it relates to a particular time, and that would have to be researched and dated.

The other five caves which have been excavated were basically places of prayer for the Mozarab community “and were maybe older tombs, possibly dating back to the last part of Prehistory, which they may be been re-using,” he said.

It is known that Malaga had a large Mozarab community from the 7th to the 11th century and it is often difficult to distinguish their items from those of Muslims during that period, but in this case Gozalbes said that it was Christian communities who used to favour hewing spaces out of the rock.

The local community stress the importance of preserving the caves.

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Cristina Hodgson

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