Montefrio is a small picturesque town 40 minutes drive from Granada. It is set in the rolling hills of olive groves in the north-west of the Granada Province at 2,500 feet above sea level. It is built midway between the Sierra de Priego and Sierra Parapanda commanding the open valley. It is famous all over Spain for the wedge-shaped cliff overlooking the village and crowned with the great Gothic church of La Villa, itself built in 1486 on the dismantled foundations of the fortress built by the Moors of Granada.

To the east is the vast wilderness of meadows, cliffs and caves known as "Las Peñas de los Gitanos", home to several hundred megalithic tombs or "dolmens". It was here that Montefrio was built, 5,000 years ago (the site of the original Copper Age village has been recently excavated), subsequently being the home of Romans, Visigoths and Arabs - the last of whom chose to move westward where the great upthrust of rock provided the ideal conditions for a military fortress.