Description
There is a place in St. Helena (Jaén) for all the neighbors known as La Cueva de los Muñecos, called for the number of votes (bronze figures) found in the area. It is the Iberian Sanctuary located on the Collado de los Jardines located on the A-6200 road that leaves from the A4 motorway in Despeñacolos to the town of Aldeaquemada.
This Sanctuary of the Ibera era, along with another located also in Jaén, in the town of Castellar are very important and have provided the largest number of bronze exvotes, important pieces not only to know the work of this metal in the Iberian world, but to solve many other problems related to the faithful who approached the divinity in these places of worship, such as the type of religiosity, the forms of clothing, the jewels, weapons, the type of hair, etc.
From Collado de los Jardines more than 2,500 exvotes have come out, and from Castellar more than 2,000. The almost all of these objects are kept in the National Archaeological Museum of Madrid.
The exvotes (dolls) of this Shrine of the Collado de los Jardines are of the most varied, in them are represented faithful of all kinds: women, men, warriors, etc.
The latest research was based on the documentation of a historical population in the "Cerro del Castillo" located above the Sanctuary, with the consequent recording of materials and the documentation of 'work units' such as a Roman track, a wall and the environment of the solar that occupied the Iberian necropolis.
The Cueva de los Muñecos is located inside the Natural Park Despeñacolos, the municipal term of Santa Elena, within a ravine, built between colossal stone blocks, in which there are excavated several caves, the largest of which, about 50 meters deep, was probably the limit of the sacred enclosure. Within this cave today there is a water spring that probably should have existed already in ancient times. In the area there is today a Centre for the Interpretation of the Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Natural Park of Despeñacolos, as well as a path for public use that leads to the Sanctuary and a lookout in the so-called Cerro del Castillo.
