HISTORY OF ESCAÑUELA
Archaeological remains found in the area surrounding Escañuela confirm that there has been human settlement in this municipality since the third millennium BC. In the place known as Pozo de Marisancho, remains of dark pottery from this period of the Copper Age have been found. Several sites are of interest in indicating the area’s Iberian past, including ceramics decorated with geometric motifs of bands or circles.
During the Roman occupation, the territory was divided according to the century-old system and the creation of rustic villas. One example is the Paraje de las Higueras. Since the Castilian conquest of the region, San Pedro de Escañuela, as this town was called until the end of the nineteenth century, remained within the Arjona alfoz. As cited in the Jaén Synod of 1311, Arjona was the centre of an Archpriest, of which Escañuela was a constituent parish.
In 1385, the population appeared as Señorío de Don Pedro Ruiz de Torres. According to a document from the Provincial Historical Archive, in which this donation appears, the town had previously belonged to Don Pedro Ruiz de Torres. The Nasrid attacks on the lands of Jaén devastated the place, which would remain depopulated. This fact entailed the loss of the rights of Don Pedro Ruiz de Torres, who would claim them again, to which Juan I agreed, although apparently without making it effective, a fact that occurred in the time of Enrique III.
In 1394, the heir to this Manor married Don Fernando of Portugal, who formed, with their possessions (Escañuela and Villardompardo), the Señorío de los Torres y Portugal. This lineage would enter with Constable Lucas de Iranzo, who added the possessions of the Villargordo House, thus forming a great Lordship that would become a County in the sixteenth century with the denomination of Villardompardo. Escañuela belonged to this Manor until its suppression by the Cortes of Cádiz in 1812. In 1814-15, the process of breaking up Escañuela from Villardompardo began, culminating in the 1930s with full legal independence for the municipality of Escañuela.
