HISTORY
Los Castellones de Ceal is one of the most important Iberian settlements in its vicinity. The origin of this settlement lies in the control of the commercial route that introduced Greek manufactured products from the Levante into the Guadalquivir Valley. The remains of walls and residential buildings are situated on a spur with a circular plateau. The study of the Iberian phase of the necropolis (an elaborate cemetery), with graves where weapons and Greek pottery were foundr, indicate the presence of powerful aristocratic characters in this town.
This settlement’s first occupation was at the end of the seventh or sixth century BC. Later, it was abandoned until the Iberian settlement was built in the fourth century BC, which lasted until the Roman Republican stage. The origin of the current population of Hinojares is uncertain, as it is not mentioned in the medieval documents of the Christian reconquest of the Sierra of Quesada-Cazorla, though the territory in which it is located belonged to Quesada after the reconquest. However, in its municipal district, there are villages and farmhouses who are named in the chronicles of the Castilian conquest. During this period, the population moved from the mountain to the valley. One of these examples is Cuenca, which was converted into a village of Quesada in 1257. The town was protected in part by the ruggedness of the hill and by a wall with at least four towers. Chíllar had a similar layout, which in 1245 was still a castle, and in 1257, was handed over as a village to Quesada.
Hinojares may have been a farmhouse or a new foundation in the valley after the Castilian conquest of these lands. Until 1648, it depended on Quesada, it then became a village of Pozo Alcón. In 1690, it obtained the title of town and its independence from Pozo Alcón. This title was coupled with the granting of temporary dominion of the habit of Santiago to Don Íñigo Rodulfo Fernández de Angulo y Sandoval, who asked King Charles II nt him the town name of Hinojares. This title ed to the noble house of the Count of Arenales, who requested of the King that the title of Hinojares remain for the eldest sons of his house. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Marquis of Guadalcázar e Hinojares was made the honorary Lord of the town of Hinojares.