Órgiva has been identified as the Greek colony of Exoche, mentioned by the geographer Ptolemy. The first written references to the town appear in the writings of al-Udri (11th century) and al-Idrisi (12th century), with the names yuz Aryuba and hisn Órgiva, respectively, as an administrative district and castle of the Cora de Elvira.
Lord Byron, Benjamin Disraeli, the Duke of Wellington, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Robert Graves... they, and countless others, had one thing in common: they all visited Spain and had plenty to say about the country.
The Alhambra palace complex is imposingly situated above the town of Granada, on the lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada, southern Spain. It is the most important surviving medieval Islamic palace in the world.
If you really want to understand Semana Santa in Andalucia, then you need to learn about the groups of people who are at the heart of it all - the cofrades or members of cofradías, the religious associations that care for the images of Christ and Mary that are used in the processions and that meet throughout the year for various activities and to plan the next Holy Week celebrations and events in their local area.
Although Puerto Banús marina maintains the illusion of being a developed old Spanish fishing village, the complex was in fact designed and built in 1970. The tourist complex comprising the marina and shopping district, together with the large residential area Nueva Andalucía, were all the vision of property developer José Banús (indeed, its full name is Puerto José Banús)
Built at the end of the nineteenth century, it is situated on the road from Guadahortuna to Alamedilla.
This natural fort, located 1,233 metres above sea level and made up of three enormous flat stones, was a refuge in medieval times.
The museum, which was inaugurated in 2007, consists of various tools that were donated by locals.
This viewpoint is located on Cerro San Juan and offers stunning views of the entire town and its surroundings.
The church is the town's most notable building.
There were settlements of tribes in the area during the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras. The Iberians, Romans and Visigoths then arrived, and some of their remains are still visible today.
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.
Carratraca has been inhabited since prehistoric times, as evidenced by archaeological finds in the Sierra de Alcaparaín, where Neolithic burials and cave paintings have been discovered. This long-standing presence continued into the Roman Period, as suggested by Roman coins and a late Roman necropolis found near the sulphurous springs.
Originally known as Mingo Priego, its current name comes from Alonso Carrillo, who was appointed Archbishop of Toledo in 1445 and granted the municipality the category of town in a founding certificate dated September 1, 1449, later confirmed by King Juan II of Castile on January 1 in 1450 and by the Reyes Católicos on January 25, 1498, thus separating the village from the old town of Iznatoraf.
The origins of the village of Torres date back to the Upper Palaeolithic. The first dwellings discovered were in the nearby Cerro del Morrón, where the inhabitants found shelters suitable for living.
The oldest settlement known in the Orcereño municipality corresponds to the Bronze Age from when the existence of a series of foothill settlements in the valleys of the Orcera and Trujala rivers have been confirmed: Piedra del Águila, Cerro of la Coja, Peñón del Utrero and Cerro de la Atalaya. Abundant ceramic material has been found in these settlements. In the last two there are also remains of a fortification, sharing similarities with those from both Roman times and even the late medieval period.
The town has very different origins and history than the rest of the province. The decision was made to build a road that linked Jaén with Albacete and as part of it, a bridge, the “new bridge”, was completed in 1889. This signified the birth of the town and it was accompanied by immense growth, such that in less than 50 years, it was already a municipality, thus becoming the only town in Jaén of the twentieth century.
In the Cueva del Nacimiento in Fuente Segura (Pontones), one of the oldest human settlements in the province is documented. In 9250 BC a kinship community existed in this place. This first phase of settlement is superimposed on another in the Neolithic, which due to the ceramic material and lithic industry found, has been dated to the middle of the sixth millennium BC. A later phase belongs to the “Río Frío” shelter, which houses a collective tomb that has been dated between the end of the third millennium and second millennium BC.
The history of Segura de la Sierra goes back in time to the dawn of civilisation. The rock paintings found in the caves of Collado del Guijarral and Cueva de la Diosa Madre attest to the human presence in these lands since the fourth millennium BC.
The exact date of origin for the town is unknown, however records state it was won from the Moors by Don Pelay Pérez Correa and that another Master of Santiago, Don Lorenzo Alvarez de Figueroa, gave it to the privilege of villazgo at the beginning of the fourteenth century, later confirmed by Felipe II.
