Ruta del Tempranillo

El Tempranillo, who was born on 21st of June 1805, would have been thirteen in 1818 which was after the French occupation but still in very unsettled times. The rumours are that while protecting his family he murdered someone and ran off to escape the law.

Joining others on the road he became a successful and famous highwaymen and his chosen highway was the Despeñaperros Pass, which means ‘to throw or cast dogs off rocks’, probably from the days when christians were thrown off the crags to their deaths.

The pass is in Jaén province on the northern border of Andalucia with plenty of passing traffic. He worked in the daytime and demanded 10% of a traveller’s belongings to ensure a safe passage through.

Like many gentlemen of the road in that era he had style and when relieving a female traveller of her rings he is supposed to have said 'A hand so beautiful as yours does not need adornments'.

For someone with a large reputation he was a short man with one hand after an accident with a pistol. He became a cult figure in Andalucía and was said that El Tempranillo ruled the mountains.

The King Spain, Fernando VII set a price of 6000 reales on Tempranillo´s head - dead or alive.

Fernando´s VII solution was to pardon the outlaw and give him a band of sixty men to control bandits. The unit was the Escuadrón Franco de Protección y Seguridad Pública de Andalucía - The free squadron for the public protection of Andalucía.

So El Tempranillo became the hunter rather than hunted and met his match while bringing the bandit El Barbarello, he died on 23rd of September 1833 from wounds he received during the capture.

Follow the Ruta del Tempranillo through the remote towns and villages where El Tempranillo reigned.


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