Description
Located in the main square, Plaza de Andalucía, it constitutes a symbolic element of the city, closely linked to citizen life. With its clock and bell tower it is present at the main citizen events, announcing and marking the time in which they take place.Originally it was a tower belonging to the medieval wall, built in the 13th century. It defended the missing Toledo Gate, which was the busiest, as it was the entrance to the city, among others, from the towns of Baeza, Jaén, Toledo, Córdoba, Seville and the court itself. In the second half of the 16th century, it was decided to adapt the tower to house a clock and bell tower, so the second body was added, where the machinery and an octagonal temple for the clock bell tower are located. Externally the arms of the city and the Austrian coat of arms appear. The temple is formed by semicircular arches on its larger sides and lintel openings on the smaller ones, decorated in the corners with large vases. The tower houses another element that accentuates its symbolic character: the image of Our Lady of Remedies, which is closely linked to the history of the city, since before her the Emperor Charles V and later his son Philip II swore to keep their privileges and privileges. Alfonso XIII renewed this ancient tradition. It is a Gothic painting framed by a pointed arch with rosette moldings in which the Virgin appears with the child, both figures incommunicado with a landscape background in which small-sized biblical scenes of original sin appear, represented by the figures of Adam and Eve; and on the other side the representation of the Calvary, showing us an abstracted representation of time and sensible space. This image was replaced by a copy; the original is at Palacio de las Cadenas. For Antonio Muñoz Molina, Torre del Reloj is a representative member in his novels and he locates it in the Plaza del General Orduña, also the main space of Mágina. (…) “Winter nights, at the end of the year, the shop windows on Calle Nueva and Calle Real illuminated until very late, speakers playing Christmas carols in the arcades of the Plaza del General Orduña, the acacia trees decorated with flashing light bulbs, the Star of Bethlehem on the Clock Tower […]” The Polish horseman. Antonio Muñoz Molina
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