Sorihuela de Guadalimar History
The area of Navas de San Juan was occupied as early as the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, as evidenced by the settlements of Castellón and La Atalaya.
It was not until the Iberian age (probably due to colonisation promoted by the Iberian centre of Cástulo around the fourth century BC) that the town was founded. At this time, it belonged to the Iberian province of Oretania, with its capital in nearby Orissia (today’s Vilches). It later came under Carthaginian rule, along with the rest of this province, until it finally passed into Roman hands, with its capital in Cartago Nova (Cartagena).
In Roman times, the town became an important strategic point on the road between Cástulo and Ilugo, as shown by the appearance of two milestones within the municipal area. A local mansion, Ad Morum, which was high on the Camino de Aníbal, served as a stopping point in the Apollinarian Vases and measured the distance between Gades (Cádiz) and Rome. It occupied the sixteenth checkpoint, indicating that it was located 23 miles from Cástulo (Linares) and 19 from Solaria (Montizón).
In the times of Al-Andalus, Navas de San Juan would have been a farmhouse or small town integrated within the administrative district of Sant Astiban, or merchant town. The Moors built a castle that was later reformed after the Christian re-conquest. There are currently remains of other fortified structures such as the castle of Ero and the homage tower around which the current Santuario de Santa María de la Estrella was built.
Navas de San Juan was conquered by Fernando III of Castile in 1226 and integrated into the royal lands, under the jurisdiction of Santisteban. In 1254, King Alfonso X el Sabio donated Santisteban to the Council of Úbeda. In 1285, King Sancho IV of León and Castile once again converted Santisteban, with its terms, into a royal town.
In the fourteenth century, Navas de San Juan and Castellar formed, by royal privilege, the Lordship of Santisteban, handed over by Enrique II of Castile to Men Rodríguez Benavides. In 1473, Enrique IV of Castile converted it into a county, granting Don Diego Sánchez de Benavides the title of Count of Santisteban.
In 1752, the Cadastre of the Marquis of Ensenada was carried out. In 1793, Felipe raised the title to a Dukedom and granted it to the House of Medinaceli. The link with Santisteban del Puerto during the Modern Age ended in 1802 with the concession by Carlos IV of the privilege of villazgo.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a large population began to arrive in Navas de San Juan from towns in Almería, especially Levante Almeriense, seeking work in the fields. They joined a community largely formed of the descendants of other migrants from Jaén who repopulated the area after the re-conquest. Whilst most settled in the main nucleus of the town, some formed a separate hamlet called Los Charcones, which has been abandoned since the second half of the twentieth century.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, the town suffered the effects of mass migration from the countryside to the big cities, losing 25% of its population between 1940 and 1975. In 1946, Mayor Mateo Luis Pérez Rodríguez was elected to the position of attorney in Cortes in the II Legislature of the Spanish Courts (1946-1949), representing the municipalities of this province. He was unanimously re-elected for the III Legislature. In the 1970s, the town’s castle was demolished to make room for new constructions.
In the twenty-first century, the communal washing area of Las Pilas and the previous slaughterhouse were rehabilitated, converted into an interpretation centre about olive oil and its production. The reintegration of the lynx (in danger of extinction) in the northern part of the municipality also took place, and the creation of a park-viewpoint in the upper area of the town, towards Villacarrillo, known as “Mirador de los Calerines”. From this viewpoint, visitors can see large vistas of the Sierra Morena, Sierra de Cazorla, Sierra de las Villas and Sierra Mágina, and towns such as Santo Tomé, Villacarrillo, Cazorla, Sabiote, Vilches and La Carolina.