History of Guadix
The city of Guadix has been inhabited since the mid-second millennium BC, and continues to be so to this day. Caesar founded the Ivlia Gemella Acci colony in 45 BC, shortly after the Battle of Munda, to house veterans of the Regio Prima Uernacula and the Regio Secunda. This settlement had a Hippodamian plan with fundamental axes known as the cardus and the decumanus. These axes can still be seen in the city today and have shaped the medieval and modern city. Roman features present here include the hydraulic infrastructure, thermal baths and the necropolises that have been discovered, the latter of which are located in the Convento La Concepción and the Plaza de Osario.
During the Visigothic period, Guadix was a bishopric and coins were minted there, suggesting the town's economic and administrative importance at that time. Evidence of the later Muslim city is still very much present, most notably in its citadel, walls, gates and typical irregular Islamic urban layout.
From the sixteenth century onwards, the Christian occupation encompassed two distinct areas surrounding the Roman-Muslim nucleus. The first area, the old town, was clustered around the Plaza Mayor and formed the first enclosure. It was occupied by the church, the administration and liberal professions. These are the Latin and Jesuit quarters, which have similar characteristics and where the influence of Castile is evident in the palaces and noble houses, which have small orchards and large plots of land and are predominantly ochre in colour. A second enclosure comprised a natural border area, including Calle Ancha, the Santiago neighbourhood and Calle San Miguel — natural boulevards of a bourgeois and agricultural nature, respectively.
The Casa de Austria dynasty granted Guadix city status under the ancient regime, but in return it penalised the town's economy by exempting it from taxes and its youth by requiring them to maintain dynastic prestige in Europe through great military efforts.
During the Bourbon period, Carlos III brought one of the most prestigious cultural and academic institutions in Accitana's history to an end: the Colegio de San Torcuato de la Compañía de Jesús. This left the pedagogical possibilities of the time exclusively to the diocesan seminary. By contrast, the Bourbons allocated greater resources to the construction of the magnificent cathedral, which was completed prior to the arrival of Napoleon’s troops.
The arrival of the French was a catastrophe with enormous consequences for the city. It began a period of decline that lasted throughout the nineteenth century, during which time the city experienced wars, epidemics and sociopolitical disasters similar to those experienced throughout the rest of Spain.