Setenil de las Bodegas Troglodytic towns are built into and around geological features, often by building a facade over a cave or overhang. They are common in many rural parts of Europe, and some of them (including Sentenil) have been lived in since prehistoric times, though modern inhabitation has removed or covered many of the traces (written records start in Roman times, 2,000 years ago). La Roque St Christophe in France for example was inhabited from the days of Neanderthal man 55,000 years ago until 1588 (seehttp://tinyurl.com/p72c7hc). Excavation in nearby caves have proved inhabitation stretching back 25,000 years. Located near Cadiz in Andalusia, and with some 3,000 inhabitants. The modern pueblo was built as a fortress by the Moors in the 11th century and has been artfully interweaved with the cliffs lining the river Trejo. The name comes from the Latin for seven and nothing, supposedly equating to the number of sieges the reconquista needed to invest the place. Bodega is a cellar or hold, in the case of Setenil, ones with a noble purpose: The storage of wine. Sadly the area was not replanted with vines after Phyloxera devastated every last vine in Europe in the late 19th Century. Like St Christophe, the town in multilayered, built on terraces overlooking a narrow river gorge and roofed by overhangs, with further houses above the rocky roof. The effect is somewhat like a house/rock stacked sandwich. Loz Image credit: Andrei Dimofte http://unusualplaces.org/setenil-de-las-bodegas/#more-1568 http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/setenil-de-las-bodegas
