HISTORY
The town’s origins date back to the construction of a bridge over the Genil River, a project designed by Hernan Ruiz and funded by Don Gonzalo Yañez Dovinal, Lord of Aguilar. The town, which appeared for strategic and commercial reasons and to defend and monitor an important pass running from the countryside to the south into Muslim occupied territory, faced all of the problems typically associated with a location close to the border.
In the final third of the sixteenth century, it fell into the hands of, Gonzalo Fernandez de Córdoba, and, according to details given in his 1498 will, Don Alfonso de Aguilar repopulated the town, which had been practically abandoned, and it became known as Puente Don Gonzalo.
In 1583, the stone bridge with its two arches was finished, only to suffer serious damage the following year due to flooding of the river which destroyed most of the Barrio Bajo district. Repeated floods caused such destruction that major rebuilding was undertaken in 1874 by the French architect, Lemonier.