Spain´s most famous 20th-century literary figure, Federico Garcia Lorca, was murdered by Fascists, probably for his political leanings and sexual orientation, in Granada, in 1936 - just before the outbreak of the Civil War. Although renowned throughout the world, Lorca´s name was banned under Franco and he was apparently forgotten.
Guadix is considered the ‘European Capital of Caves’ due to its 2,000 underground dwellings spread across 200 hectares. Around 4,500 residents still live in these cave houses, which maintain a constant temperature year-round and offer peace and quiet thanks to their natural clay insulation. The caves are easily accessible from the town centre.
The Cathedral of Guadix, built on the so-called ‘Sacred Hill’, stands on the site of a former Visigothic cathedral and later an Arab mosque. Constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries, it is the town’s most important monument, combining Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements. Its most famous feature is the Puerta de San Torcuato, with its tall bell tower visible from anywhere in the town.
The Palacio de Villalegre is one of Guadix’s most emblematic buildings. Built by the Fernández de Córdoba family on the site of a former Muslim residence, it later passed through several noble families. Over the centuries, it has served as a Civil Guard barracks, a tenement house and local police headquarters. It is located on Calle Santa María del Buen Aire.
The Church of Santiago, designed by the architect and sculptor Diego de Siloé, is one of the most beautiful examples of religious architecture in Guadix. Built on the model of a traditional Mudejar temple, it features a monumental Renaissance portal, whitewashed walls, and a ceramic spire. It is located in Plaza Santiago.
The Casa Consistorial, or Town Hall, represents the transformation of Guadix into a true Renaissance city. Originally built between the late 16th and early 17th centuries, it centralised political power around the main square. After being destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, it was rebuilt in 1949. It is located in the Plaza de la Constitución.
The Church and Convent of La Concepción, dating back to 1655, is one of the oldest in Guadix. Despite suffering several fires, it retains its original 16th-century structure with a central cloister and arched galleries. Beneath the street lie the remains of Roman baths from the city’s ancient past. It is located on Calle Concepción.
The Palacio de Peñaflor belonged to the Pérez de Barradas family, Marquesses of Cortes and Graena, who settled in Guadix after the Reconquista. The building is currently being considered for conversion into the town’s future museum. It is located on Calle Barradas.
The Church of La Magdalena, located in the historic neighborhood of the same name, holds great historical and architectural value. Built from the mid-16th century on the site of the former Mozarabic community, it preserves Mudejar features such as wooden roofs and a typical Accitan bell tower, as well as a Baroque portal from 1621. Recently restored, it now houses the Diocesan Archive of Guadix and part of the town’s treasures.
The Antigua Lonja, or Old Exchange, once served as a centre for business meetings, commercial transactions and banking in Guadix. Today, only the façade remains, featuring the coat of arms of Charles V, indicating that the building was constructed between 1530 and 1550. It is located on Calle Ancha.
The Roman Theatre of Colonia Iulia Gemella Acci is one of Guadix’s most remarkable archaeological sites. Built in the early 1st century AD, the theatre formed part of a monumental complex covering almost 6,000 m² and served as a leisure space for the Roman colony founded by Julius Caesar. It is located on Avenida Mariana Pineda.
ECCO is a cultural space, showcasing various mediums of art, with occasional daytime and evening events.
Built over uneven ground, the church is a magnificent display of masonry. The oldest parts, both Gothic in style, are the head and the transept. The three naves have Doric columns and Renaissance semicircular arches. Its tower, with a quadrangular plan and four semicircular arches to house the bells, becomes octagonal on the second level. Inside, two impressive eighteenth-century pulpits are preserved, as well as a baptismal font from the sixteenth century. Its portals are simple in structure but of great ornamental interest; the main one, from the seventeenth century, opens with a semicircular arch, between Ionic columns, geometrically decorated with rhombuses in the Mannerist style. In the centre, a niche houses a sculpture of the Inmaculada Concepción. It has two other covers, both with a semicircular arch; the north, from 1570, with careful flamingos at the ends of the cornice, which is attributed to Francisco del Castillo “el Mozo” and his brother Benito; and the south, dated 1620. Located on Avenida de la Virgen del Cuadro.
This cylindrical watchtower is 6.37m in diameter and 12m high, with 1.6m thick walls pierced by three arrow slits. The tower, now lacking its original parapet, was once divided into three floors. The original Castillo de “Quadros” is mentioned in a 1260 document by Alfonso X, but only this tower remains. According to Milagros Jiménez and Tomás Quesada (1992), it was built on a Moorish structure, possibly the "castiello" mentioned in the document. They date the tower to the 13th century, built by the Castilians to protect the pass from Bedmar to Cambil between the Sierra Mágina and Almadén peaks. Francisco Cerezo and Juan Eslava (1989) suggest it was constructed in the early 14th century. There was likely an earlier structure, probably from the 12th century, as al-Khatib mentions the place name Qutrus, possibly derived from the Latin Quattuor. The tower is located south of the town, off the JV-3222.
Local devotion to the Virgen de Cuadros can be traced back to the Relaciones de Felipe II of 1575, and the Sanctuary was established in 1615 to honour her in the form of a tower and mill. Its interior is rectangular with a single nave covered with a false plaster barrel vault, with false transverse arches that rest on architrave pilasters. Both the nave and the presbytery, which is accessed through a lowered main arch and is covered with a half-orange vault on pendentives, are ornamented with geometric motifs and plant themes. A choir was built at the beginning of the eighteenth century and has undergone various reforms and modifications. Located south of the town, off the JV-3222.
Aceites Viana is an oil mill owned by the Salcedo family, who also run the Casa Juanito de Baeza Restaurant. Founded in 1997, it is located in a privileged enclave of the Sierra Mágina Natural Park and is dedicated to the manufacture of high-quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The family obtain the oil from their own groves, and oversee the entire process, from harvest to manufacture, and marketing. The best technicians are employed to monitor pests and diseases and ensure that the olives are harvested at the optimal moment of maturation. Once the collection has been carried out, the olives are transported to the mill in the shortest possible time (7 hours maximum from the beginning of the harvest), and the manufacturing process (cleaning and cold grinding) must take place within 12 hours. Aceites Viana has the most advanced manufacturing systems, with a production capacity of 100,000 kg/24 hours, controlling the entire process in their own laboratory. Located on Camino de Jodar.
The Regulatory Council of the Denomination of Origin Aceites de Sierra Mágina has had its headquarters here since 2009, in a building with an avant-garde design, popularly known as the “Guggenheim” in Bedmar. The Interpretation Centre has an exhibition space titled “From Olive Grove to Plate”, where an educational tour explains the life cycle of olives, from cultivation, to the production of oils, to its use in gastronomy. Visitors can also enjoy guided tours of the groves and mills. Located on the A-320.
The construction of the “New Castle” was motivated by the looting of the Villa and its previous fortress, known as Castillo Viejo. When the King of Granada, Muhammad VII, attacked and conquered Bedmar in 1407, the castle was seized and much of the population was imprisoned or executed by the Nasrids. These events reinforced the urgency of defending this area of border more strongly, since Bedmar guarded one of the most valuable communication gates between the Christian territory and the Kingdom of Granada. The Order of Santiago built the Castillo Nuevo from 1411, at the highest point of the current town, about 685 meters above sea level. It consists of two areas, the enclosure and the fortress. Declared an Asset of Cultural Interest under the Monuments category since 1985. Located on Calle Trastorre.
The Palace of the Marqués de Viana is one of the great Renaissance-style civic buildings in the province of Jaén. Construction began in 1501 and was concluded by 1548, when Don Díaz Sánchez de Quesada was Lord of the town, married to Doña Inés de Tabera. Thought to be the work of Don Pedro de Vandelvira, the palace has a square plan with Ionic and Doric architectural elements. Its main doorway, framed in marble by two pilasters with Ionic capitals, has a corbel on its arch and is topped by a frieze that alternates triglyphs and bull heads, instead of the typical metopes of the classical Doric order. Declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2006. Located on Calle San Marcos.
The Castillo de las Cinca Esquinas (Castle of the Five Corners) also known as the SalvaTierra Castle, can be seen from most areas of Cazorla. It was built in the last third of the 14th century on the remains of an old Arab fortification, probably by Archbishop Pedro Tenorio. It is a contemporary of the Torre del Homenaje del Castillo de la Yedra.