Source of the Guadalquivir River
Andalucia´s great waterway, the Guadalquivir
River - used by the Phoenicians and Romans to sail up into the heartland
of Seville and Cordoba - is born as a mountain creek in the lovely
wildlife preserve known as the Sierra
de Cazorla. Just beyond the fashionable town of Cazorla
and on the way to the Nature Park and the sierra, is the fairy-tale
crusaders´castle of La Iruela, perched on its stony crag.
Villages and castles are scattered throughout the region, such as
Belerda, Villacarrillo, Quesada, Peal de Becerro, Iznatoraf,
Sorihuela de Guadalimar and Chiclana de Segura. In the northeast
lie the villages of Hornos,
Orcera, Benatae and Siles,
as well as the castle-town of Segura, at 4,000 ft. above sea level,
which is distinguished by its bullring carved out of the mountainside.
Northern confines of Jaen Province
The thriving olive-farming town of Andújar,
in the north of the province, lies on the banks of the Guadalquiver
River and boasts several fine monuments, such as the Church
of Santa María de la Mayor, with its Plateresque
(Spanish Renaissance) façade and mudéjar (Moorish-style)
bell tower, as well as, inside, a painting by El Greco, Christ in
the Garden of Olives. The town has a Roman bridge with 15 arches
spanning the muddy waters, and like so many towns of the region,
is overlooked by the ruins of a mightly Moorish fortress. The market
stalls specialise in the local pottery and honey and herbs from
the nearby Sierra Morena. The region is the site of one of the most
decisive battles fought during the Reconquest - in the year 1212,
at a place called Navas de Tolosa - which marked the ¨beginning
of the end¨ of the Moorish domination of Andalucia.
Andújar
natural park is the starting point for excursions to the rugged,
impenetrable forests of Sierra Morena, part of the vast natural
barrier between Andalucia and Castile, through which runs the dramatic
mountain pass called el Desfiladero
de Despeñaperros, site of the current motorway between
Madrid and the south. In the midst of this region of oak forests
and bull-breeding ranches stands, atop a towering crag, the Sanctuary
of La Virgen de la Cabeza, a 13th century shrine built
to house a statue of the madonna which, according to legend, was
sent to Spain by Saint Peter. However, the shrine was almost completely
destroyed during a bloody siege in the Spanish Civil War, and replaced
with the current, massive grey stone monument during the Franco
regime.
Olive Groves of Jaén
Olivares de Jaén is the title of an often-recited
20th century poem, a sort of meditation on the seemingly endless
hills planted with the precious tree first brought to Spain by the
Romans, and which is now the mainstay of the Andalucian agricultural
economy. The traveller who drives across this unique landscape will
not fail to be awed by the sight, and all of the region´s
villages are, obviously, devoted to the olive oil industry, such
as Torredonjimeno, Higuera and
Santiago de Calatrava, Martos,
Alcaudete (with an impressive, as yet unrestored
Moorish fort), Frailes,Valdepeñas
de Jaén, Otiñar, Campillo
de Arenas, Cambil, Huelma,
Pegalajar and Mancha Real. In
the south of the province is the mighty fortress of Alcalá
la Real, taken by the Christians in the mid-14th century and
used as the launching point for attacks on the Moorish kingdom until
the conquest of Granada 150 years later.
Jaén Province boasts two of Andalucia´s
most impressive and ancient monumental towns, standing only a few
mile apart from one another, each on its fortified hill, and always
mentioned in the same breath: Ubeda
and Baeza. To the
north, in the region of El Condado and the Guadalimar, Guadalén
and Guarrizas rivers, the wanderer will discover sleepy, ancient
villages such as Ibros, Canena,
Vilches, Arquillos, Navas
de San Juan, Sabiot and Torreperogil.
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