A friend of mine was visiting me in Granada and he spent a
year here not that long ago, so he knew plenty of places that are off the
beaten path. I already pride myself in knowing a lot of cool, less well-known
places, but he definitely introduced me to a few new ones.
One of the new places he showed me was the Fajalauza
ceramics factory. This is a place just outside the city walls near or in the
Albaicín, just along the road up to Mirador San Miguel Alto. It is outside the
area most people would walk to, but it is actually quite close. There is a
small factory on each side of the road, both called Fajalauza, but one with an
opening date of 1517 and the other with a date from the 1600s. I wonder what’s
the story behind that!
We went into the one from 1517. It consists of a series of
very odd, old buildings which were once the place where these were ceramics
were made. The old oven is still visible, although I assume that now this whole
site is more just a place to sell the ceramics. There is a small museum/shop
where you can buy some tiles, plates, bowls, cups, etc. with typical Granada
pottery. They are still hand painted, although they use modern ovens now.
They are certainly not trying very hard to attract tourists.
I imagine most of their business comes from selling the tiles, but it’s hard
not to see what potential this place has as a provider of hand-made souvenirs
and maybe with a nicer museum or ceramics-making workshops… In fact, just a decent
website would be a start! But I guess this is the different mentality towards
business in Spain, versus that of a US-style business-driven mindset. Here as
long as your company provides enough for your family and employees, it isn’t a
must to scale it just because you can…
PS: If you want unique and cheap souvenirs from Granada, Fajalauza
is definitely a nice option
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