The Renaissance in Jaén

The Century of Light and Thought

Visualizes a time when the light of Humanism began to spread across Europe and found in Jaén a perfect place to settle. During the 16th century, these lands lived a period splendor,Even today it is seen in every golden stone, in every silent square and in every facade that opens to the sky. Here, the Renaissance is not studied, it is breathed.

As you go through the province, you discover a territory that grew strong thanks to the wealth of its countryside and the momentum of cities like Jaén, Ubeda and Baeza. In them, intellectual and artistic life flourished with a surprising intensity. Great figures of the Court and of the Vatican brought the language of the Classicism here and the province became a crossroads of roads where new ideas found fertile ground.

In this environment, artists were born and worked that left a mark inside and outside Spain. Italians, French and Portuguese joined local geniuses such as Juan Martínez Montañés or Gaspar Becerra, creating a heritage that today excites the visitor.

Travelling for Jaén now is immersing itself in that legacy. The former University of Baeza speaks of thought and reform; the municipalities, foundings and public buildings of Martos, Andújar or Alcaudete show the pulse of the cities in transformation; and the cathedrals of Jaén and Baeza, along with the palaces raised by the nobility, reveal the master hand of Andrés de Vandelvira, the architect who sealed the Renaissance identity of the province.

In each detail there appears a history: the grate of Master Bartolomé, the cordobus that decorated the noble homes, the silent patios where the light is laid with delicacy. Everything is part of a cultural landscape that is still alive.

During the tour, towns and cities in the province of Jaén deploy a

monumental heritage that has resisted the passing of the centuries. Its medieval footprint invites you to discover it calmly, between olive trees and living memory.

You have before you the opportunity to travel Jaén, from the saws that roam the horizon to the immense sea of olive trees inside. Discover, at your own pace, the diversity of its light, memory and hospitality. The full itinerary is divided into seven sections. You can do it in full or by choosing those who attract you most. You decide the rhythm.

Perfect for driving, this route invites you to discover destinations that share a fascinating past. You will walk through streets where palaces, temples, convents and medieval castles still lie and keep their living essence.

Unique personality: each locality unfolds its character between olive trees and memory. From the first step you will feel how history opens to you with serenity, as a light that guides your journey.

We accompany you on this journey through the light and soul of Jaén, where each stop is a story and every landscape, an emotion.

The province of Jaén is the entrance door to Andalusia, located to the north-east of the autonomous community, just at the head of the Guadalquivir River, on horseback between Sierra Morena and the Betic Cordilleras. Its area is 13,496.09 km ², limiting to the north with the province of Ciudad Real, with Córdoba to the west, with Granada to the south and to the east with Albacete.

The Jiennese territory has a variety and quality of tourist attractions to meet the expectations of the most demanding visitors:

Jaén is the province with the largest area of protected areas in Spain. Its four Natural Parks are the best exponent: Serras de Cazorla, Segura y las Villas, Sierra Mágina, Despeñacolos and Sierra de Andújar. A whole stretch of indigenous flora and fauna that carpet a steep territory, where its combination with the rural urban setting, loaded with great folklore and cultural wealth, puts the guinda to an idyllic landscape for the enjoyment of nature.

The prehistoric, Iberian, Muslim and Renaissance legacy, mainly, has left its mark on the territory, with the monumental wealth inherited from these stages of history being very significant. There are six sets of catalogued rock paintings "World Heritage," an impressive archaeological and museum potential of the Iberian stage; a wide range of fortifications and medieval vestiges whose main examples are The Routes of the Castles and Battles, that of the Nazaris or that of the Caliphate, to which must be added an impressive monumental heritage of a civil and religious character inherited from the Renaissance era, whose most exponent are the cities of Ubeda and Baeza declared "World Heritage" by UNESCO.

On the other hand, the ancient cultivation of the olive tree has, in addition to the production of olive oil whose culinary excellence is well known, a whole culture

A centenary of this agricultural development that has allowed the creation of the "Routas del Olivo," a tourist tour that runs through several municipalities of the province, where a whole cast of manifestations associated with this cultivation is shown (museum of oil, cortijos, old almazaras, modern factories, packaging machines, facilities of Denomination of Origin, restaurants with letters of oil, specialized shops, manufacture of preserved olive oil, manufacture of cosmetics with olive oil, spa specialized in treatments with olive oil, olive wood crafts, etc.).

The possibilities of exploitation, the reservoirs, the rich gastronomy, the artisanal diversity, the ethnography, etc., are elements that, together with the tourist resources referred to, singles out the tourist offer of Jaén and come to complete the competitiveness of a tourist destination that bases its development on two concepts: quality and sustainability.