La Inmaculada Cave Museum

About La Inmaculada Cave Museum

The Cueva Museo La Inmaculada is a cave-house museum on the Carretera de Granada in Purullena, a village of the Guadix district where cave dwellings with white chimneys dot the red clay hills. It lies near exit 288 of the A-92, at about 930 metres, and opened to visitors in 1999.

Purullena still has more than 400 families living underground, the highest concentration of cave homes in the Guadix area, and the museum shows how that life works across several linked caves. The Cueva Actual is a furnished modern home with kitchen and wood-burning stove, plus a section explaining the geology and how caves are excavated. An underground staircase climbs to the Cueva Antigua, furnished as a cave home of the early 20th century, whose patio looks over the village and the Fardes valley to the Sierra Nevada. Another cave holds an ethnographic collection of tools, household objects and old photographs.

Guided visits are offered in Spanish and English. Hours vary by season and some days are mornings only, so check before you go.

The caves stay at about 18°C all year, which makes a midday visit welcome in July and August. In winter, come in the morning for clear views of the snow on the Sierra Nevada.

La Inmaculada Cave Museum in pictures

What you’ll find

• Museum exhibitionExhibition visitTicket
• Museum galleriesMuseum visitTicket
• Museum guideGuided tourBook

Nearby places to visit

This is a good base for very different trips across Granada province. Over the Sierra Nevada to the south, the Vallejo Ham Museum (36 km) in Trevélez, one of Spain's highest villages, explains the curing of the Alpujarra's famous hams in a working drying house. North-east across the Guadix and Baza plateau, Playa de Freila (36 km) is an inland beach on the Negratín reservoir, backed by eroded badlands in the Granada Geopark. Towards the city, the Ángel Barrios Legacy Museum (39 km) occupies old Islamic baths inside the Alhambra, linked to the guitarist and composer Ángel Barrios. Check its opening status before travelling.