History of Torredonjimeno
by Saskia Mier
The first lithic materials indicating early human presence in the area were unearthed on the sites ofArroyo del Abandonado and El Barranquillo and correspond to the Paleolithic era. During the Copper Age (third millennium BC), the lands which comprise today’s Torredonjimenounderwent a process of colonisation. It was a community formed of smaller, disparate settlements established in places of easy defense, of which Piedra de Cuca, Cerro Buitreras and Cerro Portichuelos stand out. Towards the end of the Bronze Age (second millennium BC), a period of crisis resulted in the abandonment of these settlement.
In the ninth century BC, the population returned, concentrated around the Atalayuelas, where inhabitants lived in circular huts. By theseventh century AD, in the middle of the Iberian period, fortified settlements such as Fuencubierta, Cerro de la Covatilla, Cerro Carnicero and Cortijada de Arcos grew. These depended on the Iberian city of Tucci (Martos), also known in Roman times as Colonia Augusta Gemella Tuccitana, this Colony being formed by both the city of Tucci and Tosiria.
The current name of Torredonjimeno comes from the time of the Re-conquest of Fernando III, however, there are indications of a population prior to the dates of the conquest of Castile. Many researchers (including Father Fray Alejandro del Barco, eighteenth century) believed they found in the current Torredonjimeno the location of a Roman city, which together with Martos would form the Colonia Gemella Augusta Gémina or Tuccitana. However, there are other theories whichsay that the settlement that was part of the colony was Jamilena and not Torredonjimeno.
In Roman times, it was already known by the name of Tosiria (so named by the Iberians) which seems to be a derivative of Tucci and Ossaria. Today, this second family name, Tosiria, is still used to refer to the town of Jaén, being its respective name, Tosiriano. In 1225, the city became part of the Kingdom of Castile and a few years later, in 1228, Fernando III granted all territory to the Military Order of Calatrava, becoming part of the Encomienda de la Peña of Martos and of Víboras, to defend and repopulate it.
The Order of Calatrava restructured the castle and began a repopulation process around it. From that moment on, a small urban nucleus was formed. During the fourteenthand fifteenth centuries,, the growth of this incipient nucleus was impeded by its border with the Kingdom of Granada, which encouraged the construction of watchtowers for a firm control of the territory.
Fernando III conquered the Kingdom of Jaén and Torredonjimeno, which at that time was a solid Islamic fortress, on September 29, 1229. This act was achieved by an Aragonese Knight named Don Ximeno de Raya, who would give the town its name. Around this original nucleus the population progressed until reaching an average entity towards the fourteenth century.
In 1275, one of the most remarkable events in the town’s history took place. On the occasion of the fight against the Jaén border, developed by the Granada King Muhammad II, with the help of Moroccan Muslims, the Archbishop of Toledo and Infante de Aragón, Sancho de Aragón, son of King Jaime the Conqueror, advanced in a previous battle upon the arrival of the bulk of the Castilian troops; as a consequence of this precipitation, he was taken captive in a place very close to Torredonjimeno. Subsequently, a discussion broke out among the Muslim leaders about which King should be handed over. One of the Knights,to avoid the confrontation, assassinated him, and gave his head to the North Africans and hisright hand, with the episcopal ring, to the Nazarites.
In 1369, in the middle of the border stage, Torredonjimeno already had a walled enclosure that defended the city. With these defenses, the townwas able to face a new invasion by the Muslim armies carried out in 1471. They obtained a large amount of property and captives, among themtwo daughters of the Castillo Governor, Diego Fernández de Martos, who were taken to Granada. One of them died martyred, in the company of another neighbor from Torredonjimeno, for refusing to convert to the Islamic faith; the fateof the other daughter of the Tosirian warden isunknown, although it is presumedthat she accepted conversion to Islam.
Another notable character in the history of the town was Diego López Pacheco y Portocarrero, Marquis of Villena, one of the nobles of the Catholic Monarchs who also fought in battle near the Tosirian fortress, and in a gesture of gratitude he became one of the most important benefactors of the sanctuary of the Patron Saint of the city. In the subsequent battle, the Castilian troops, led by him, defeated the Muslims. Inrecognition of this victory, the Marquis of Villena ordered the construction of the Ermita de la Virgen de Consolación.
Around the year 1526, King Carlos I stayed in Torredonjimeno when he was going to Seville to marry Isabel of Portugal, staying at the Palace of Gonzalo de Villalta, Commander of the Peña de Martos and very close to Emperor Carlos I.
In 1558, Princess Juana of Austria, Governor of the domains of the Monarchy in the absence of Felipe II, granted the independence of the Villa, removing it definitively from its historical dependence on Martos. Through a privilege, preserved today in the Municipal Archive, full civil and criminal jurisdiction was granted in exchange for the payment of 9,000 ducats to the Royal Treasury.
The sixteenth century was a period of expansion and prosperity; in 1580, the medical Saints Cosme and Damián, to whom the locality had been entrusted, became Patrons of the city for having freed them from a plague epidemic.
From the so-calledCentury of Enlightenment, the eighteenth century, it is necessary to underline the slow process of economic recovery, the number of inhabitants and their social life. As a consequence, in 1773 the new Municipal Ordinances were drawn up, very much in the style of the new enlightened society that was trying to break through in the reign of Carlos III.
In 1905, the early appearance of the labour movement in Torredonjimeno, with the creation of Workers’ Societies such as the so-called El Porvenir del Trabajo, claimed their labour rights and in 1911, King Alfonso XIII granted the title of City to Torredonjimeno.
In 2005, Torredonjimeno was declared by the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Andalucíaas a Site of Cultural Interest in the category of Historic Complex, in recognition of the urban and historical values of the city.