Cyclopean Wall. Ibros

Archaeological site

Calle Pilar, 1. 23450, Ibros

The Cyclops were mythological beings that only had one eye, they were members of a race of giants, strong, of great temperament and sudden emotions. Mythology tells us that they were great builders and craftsmen and that is why during the Middle Ages walls of large worked blocks began to be discovered, like this one by Ibros, and that they began to be called "cyclopean structures" reaching the conclusion that only the Cyclops gathered the skill and strength necessary to be able to build them.

It was Manuel de Góngora on his trip through the province of Jaén around 1860 who discovered this magnificent wall, affirming for the first time that it was made from an Iberian factory. That Professor of Universal History and Inspector of Antiquities, made a spectacular discovery: he was the pioneer in identifying the Iberian peoples of the Alto Guadalquivir.

In more recent studies, this type of cyclopean structures have been identified with fortified towers and enclosures that would cover a chronology between the second and first centuries BC. In those late moments of the Iberian culture, the Romans are already in the Guadalquivir lands and new models of landscape occupation are imposed, in which it seems that these large defensive structures correspond to strategic sites that delimit and control territories, roads, water sources, and even farm fields.

The cyclopean wall of Ibros, which today we see integrated into the hamlet, has endured to this day as an important architectural element of Iberian culture. Its large stones, which were originally united without mortar, teach us many things about those people: fears, technological advances, struggles and wars, conquests, social transformations ... It is located in the northern part of the historic center, in the neighborhood known as " the lordship ”.

It has a logical location from the strategic point of view since it defended the most vulnerable area and closest to the riverbed.

It is one of the most famous prehistoric monuments in the province of Jaén. A large construction, originally formed by a quadrangular enclosure that surrounded the perimeter of the town of which today we only keep a corner 12 and 13 meters long. Its enormous ashlars are assembled without mortar and have dimensions of 3.60 meters in length by and 1.70 meters in width.

We do not have news of the town again until Christian times when it was taken in 1157. Later it fell again in the power of the Arabs, until it was definitively conquered by Fernando III the Saint. During the reign of Felipe IV, the defense of the town consisted of a small castle and a fence in which the Iberian-Roman cyclopean wall was reused.

The old castle of Ibros must have suffered a progressive abandonment, like the rest of the fortresses, since after the capture of Granada in 1492 there was no immediate external enemy and with the progress of the artillery these fortifications became unnecessary.