Must visit: The white-washed village in Andalucia that boasts St Valentine as its patron – and it’s easy to see why, writes JON CLARKE

THE stunning white village of Arriate has no less than half a dozen songs in honour of their patron saint St.Valentine.

Known off by heart by many of the 5,000 locals, one legendary group of singers, the Auroreros famously goes round in the middle of the night serenading people with them.

But take a walk around the charming village in daytime and you will also find half a dozen other links to the fated god of lovemaking.

These include a circular bench designed for lovers as well as a giant Cupid’s arrow that doubles as the perfect viewing spot over the village and up into the surrounding Serrania de Ronda mountains.

You even tour the town by following a carefully curated route of Valentina, a lovestruck stork, who has been nesting in a high chimney stack on the edge of the village as long as anyone can remember.

All this because on a Valentine’s Day, some four centuries ago, Arriate finally won its freedom from its big sister Ronda.

Indeed, it was on February 14, 1661, that the villagers clubbed together to pay 352,739 Maravedies – the currency back then – in order to buy their independence.

An auspicious day, it meant the village finally came of age and was able to take charge of its destiny.

With St Valentine now as its patron saint (one of only two towns in Spain, the other in Aragon), it has had a public holiday ever since.

And the town hall has gone one step further, rebranding Arriate as Andalucia’s official ‘Pueblo de Amor’ and encouraging star-crossed lovers from around the world to take a visit.

As well as promoting its romantic mountain backdrop in the heart of the Serrania de Ronda, it is championing its charming local architecture and its original cuisine.

Mayor Francisco Javier Anet, a photographer by trade, is leading the charge for romance.

A keen environmentalist, having studied Geography at university, he is pushing the village’s amazing green spaces that nudge into the Sierra de las Nieves National Park.

This means the creation of a four kilometre circular walk that leaves from the village up into the amazing hidden valley, the Arroyo de la Ventilla.

The little-known gorge – a mini version of Ronda’s Tajo and far less visited – is crammed full of flora and fauna, including orchids, eagles and even wild animals including genets and stoats.

Even more interesting are the cave houses carved into the vertical sandstone cliffs and other evidence of man that goes back way before the Romans.

“It’s a breathtaking space and a real adventure for anyone looking for a genuine escape,” explains Anet. “It’s this natural way of life we want to promote to anyone thinking of visiting the area.”

LOOK OUT FOR

Make sure you visit one of a trio of ham factories that are in some cases centuries old. One of these in the charming pedestrianised Calle Callejuela has been open as a shop since 1900, a fact proven by the number carved into its pretty wrought iron doorway.

Best established is the family-run business of Melgar, which has a number of shops in nearby Ronda and Malaga, and serves its own cheese as well as ham.

CINEMA PARADISO

Los Caireles restaurant and bar is a lovely conversion of the 1940s Cine Ideal, that is somehow still intact out back. It shut in 1988 due to dwindling audiences and firstly became a flamenco venue, before becoming a bar and restaurant, with much of its original memorabilia, advertising and film cameras still around.

MARVELLOUS MUELLE

Appropriately romantic in the extreme is the charming restaurant, El Muelle, run by Dutchman Frank Rottgering, on the edge of town. This converted 100-year-old railway building is charm personified, and you’ll expect a roaring fire and candles in winter and the most romantic terrace for the sunset in summer.