History of Arquillos
The oldest documents in which the town of Arquillos is mentioned date back to 1254, and reference Alfonso X el Sabio handing over the village to Baeza for protection and defense. Other documents from this period imply that the town is Islamic in origin.
Known as Venta de los Arquillos, it appears cited in the itinerary of the most important and best Spanish roads of 1576 by Alonso de Meneses to go from Valencia or Barcelona, to Seville by road on the route from Almansa to Córdoba.
Commissioned by Carlos III, the Mayor of Seville, Don Pablo de Olavide, undertook the colonisation of the Sierra Morena, in accordance with the New Populations Charter of 1767. This colonisation strove towards the creation of 44 towns and 11 cities. Arquillos was established as one of these population centres, which Olavide originally wanted to call Campomania.
The congregation, which included the village of El Porrosillo, now depends on the Intendancy of New Populations of Andalusia and Sierra Morena. The initiative sought to implement a new social organisation that was not dictated by the jurisdictional restrictions of the Old Regime.
Until the creation of the provincial division in 1833, the town was governed by special privileges that regulated aspects of the economic and social life of the settlers. From then on, Arquillos came to depend on Santisteban del Puerto until, in 1833, Queen Isabel II granted it independence; ten years earlier, the town had handed over General Riego, a symbol of revolutionary liberalism, who had taken refuge there during the last insurrection after having been betrayed when fighting against the French troops of the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis.
The Acción de Arches was part of a campaign developed along the entire front of the Sierra Morena in Jaén, in which the army in charge of defending the natural entrance to Andalusia by Despeñaperros, under the command of Generals Aréizaga and Castejón, had to retreat before the powerful French attack, commanded by one of the most prestigious and famous Napoleonic marshals, Horace Sebastiani, and which ended before the walls of Cádiz, which was subjected to a harsh siege, after effortlessly seizing the cities of Jaén, Granada, Córdoba and Seville.
In this way, on January 20, 1810, in a coordinated action of the French imperial army, the Spanish defensive line between Puerto del Muradal and Santa Elena was dismantled, when, at the height of Las Correderas, the Spanish forces were surprised by a brilliant advance of the Gallic cavalry, who operated so swiftly that 15 cannons and numerous prisoners were lost. While some Spanish soldiers took refuge in the hills, the rest withdrew towards Arquillos, in the direction of Jaén, in the hope of being safe from the arrival of the enemies. Various actions were precipitated that day by Sierra Morena, but it was on the following day that the remains of the Spanish defenders who were retreating from Despeñaperros found themselves in the vicinity of the town, near the Guadalimar, with Sebastiani’s army that had crossed the Sierra in the Montizón area.
The forces located in Arquillos were under the command of General Castejón and were made up of the remains of the Malaga Regiment, known as the Fijo de Málaga, under the command of the valiant and courageous Captain Vicente Moreno Baptista who, according to the chronicles, managed to save the lives of some of his commanders as well as his own.
It was this action by Arquillos, together with the serious flaws in the tactical planning of the battles, as had already happened in Ocaña a few months before and which had led to disaster for the Hispanic army, which motivated Captain Moreno to create, under his command, a “guerrilla” (mini war) that headed towards his homeland of Malaga. From the mountains surrounding the capital, Vicente Moreno continued to harass the French troops until, betrayed by a Spaniard in exchange for money, he was taken prisoner and executed in the city of Granada on August 10, 1810.
On April 3, 1493, Christopher Columbus was received in Barcelona by the Catholic Monarchs, whom he informed about his first trip to America (then called Las Indias). The news was so impressive that he was immediately commissioned to make a second trip (of a total of four) in order to explore more thoroughly the discovered territories. In this way, on May 28 of that year, the admiral departed from the city of Barcelona on his way to Seville, where preparations would be made for the journey that would depart from the port of Cádiz.
Columbus made this land route in the company of five of his servants and with an invitation from the Catholic Monarchs to spend the night, free of charge, in as many good-quality inns as necessary, as it appears in the “Royal Certificate to the Councils, Justices, Aldermen, etc. of the Kingdoms and Lordships of Castile”, dictated in Barcelona on May 26, 1493. It is documented that on June 10th the procession was in Santisteban del Puerto, on the 11th in the Venta de los Arquillos and on the 12th in Andújar. Finally, on June 20th, he arrived in Seville, where Columbus resided until September 17th. He arrived two days later in Cádiz, from where he departed on September 25th in command of a total of 17 ships bound for the Canary Islands.
The presence of Santa Teresa de Jesús in the lands of the Holy Kingdom was required, since she had the task of founding a community of nuns in the town of Beas de Segura, which she achieved in 1575, accompanied by the chaplain, Julián de Ávila. After just a few days in the mountain town, she received communication from the Provincial of the Carmelite Order outlining the need for an additional religious foundation in Seville.
On May 18, Santa Teresa de Jesús left Beas on the road to El Condado in the direction of Linares. The carts on which she and her entourage of Sisters moved were especially designed as an extension of the convent; entering and exiting the cars was a solemn ritual requiring their habitual white cape and black veil over the face. When they sighted an inn, the men who accompanied them went ahead to prepare everything so that, as soon as they arrived, the Sisters went directly to their rooms. They concluded the day in Santisteban del Puerto and the next day headed towards Linares. It was around noon that they stopped at the Venta de los Arquillos, where they rested and replenished their strength to continue on their way and, late at night, reach the mining city.