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In the municipality of Andújar, and in the area of the fertile lowlands of the Guadalquivir, are the following districts: Vegas de Triana, Los Villares, La Ropera, Llanos del Sotillo and San José. These villages were created around the time of the Plan Jaén, around the 1950s, which established irrigation in these lands close to the banks of the Guadalquivir. The new settlers came in some cases from villages in the province of Jaén, as is the case of the inhabitants of Génave who settled in the hamlet of La Ropera.

Within its boundaries is the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza, where one of the most important pilgrimages in the region is held and one of the oldest in Spain, with almost 800 years of history.

Stately homes, modern buildings and houses of traditional architecture make up its urban landscape in which we find monuments such as the Church of Santa María, the Church of San Miguel, the Church of San Bartolomé, the Palace of Cárdenas, the tower of the Fuente Sorda, the Tower of Tavira, the Town Hall and many others.

Culture

The city of Andújar still maintains a heritage of great interest, due to the quality of its monuments and the diversity of artistic styles that can be seen.

We would like to highlight some of them:

• Church of Santa María La Mayor. The Church of Santa María La Mayor, with a basilica floor plan, its construction began in the 15th century, finishing in the first quarter of the 17th century. Its pillars and vaults of the first section are Gothic and the rest of the ensembles are from the second half of the 16th century. The ground plan is divided into three naves of four bays each. Among its works of great value are the 16th century ironwork and two pictorial works, the Prayer in the Garden of Olives by El Greco and the Immaculate Conception by Giuseppe Cessari.  It has 3 façades. North doorway, in the Plaza de Santa María. Designed in the early years of the 16th century, in purist style. South doorway, dedicated to St. Peter. It is from the second half of the 16th century, in the strictest purist style. Portada de los pies. It belongs to the Herrerian style, characterised by its lack of ornamentation and the sobriety of its elements. The Chapel of Cristo de la Agonía is connected to the Church of Santa María. It is in the Neo-Gothic style, built between 1923 and 1925 by Rafael and Mª Elvira Pérez de Vargas (Counts of La Quintería). It is a private chapel conceived as the crypt of the Counts. It has a single nave, organised in two sections, with ribbed vaults, and the chancel is decorated with five pointed windows with stained glass windows.
• Church of San Miguel. Dating from the second half of the 15th century, it is a Gothic church with a basilica floor plan and three naves. The central nave, wider than the side naves, ends in a polygonal chevet, while the side naves are flat. The interior lacks its own luminosity as it does not have stained glass windows, one of its most characteristic elements. Of its façades, the one at the foot is in the Plateresque style; the northern façade is in the transition between Gothic and Renaissance; the southern façade has a folded ogee arch flanked by pinnacles. The tower, dating from the 16th century, has undergone numerous alterations as it was damaged by the Lisbon earthquake.

• Church of San Bartolomé. This is the first parish church to be built outside the walls and was founded at a later date. In the initial project it was conceived as a Gothic church with three naves, divided into five sections. Signs of the different remodelling works remain: the late Gothic style (16th century) can be seen in the door of the sacristy, and the original ribbed vaults were replaced by others of a Mannerist style. The unfinished tower dates from the 17th century and is reminiscent of the tower of San Miguel. Of the three doors, the one leading to the San Bartolomé passageway is the most interesting. Its opening, with a pointed double arch flanked by another ogee arch with cardinals and flanked by pinnacles, is the most interesting. The authorship of the unfinished tower, which reminds us of that of San Miguel, is attributed to Francisco del Castillo el Joven.

• Church of Santa Marina. Mosque in the Muslim period and Christian temple since the capture of the town by Ferdinand III the Saint (1225). It is a temple with three naves divided into four sections. Its main chapel was remodelled in the 17th century, with a square section covered with a half-orange vault on pendentives on which the coats of arms of Pedro and Luis Pérez de Vargas Palomino, its patrons, can be found. Its two façades are of great simplicity, with the one at the foot, in the Baroque style, being the most monumental. It ceased to be a parish church in 1843, although it remained open for worship until the 1970s. It is currently used as a cultural space.

• The Clock Tower. A tower of Mudejar influence built in the time of Emperor Charles I (completed on 20th August 1534). It was part of the royal prison and was conceived as a lookout point from which to observe the town and its surroundings. It presides over the Plaza de Santa María, the heart of the medieval city. Its construction is sober, based on an alternation of brick and stone ashlars. The battlements that crown the building give it the air of a fortress tower. Two elements stand out in this unique building: the two-headed coat of arms of the emperor and the beautiful Plateresque clock that gives its name to the tower. The towers of the Church of Santa María, both the primitive and the modern ones, do not exceed the height of the Clock Tower, simply because the municipal civil power had to remain above the religious power in the image of the city.

• Casa Palacio de los Niños de Don Gome. This ancestral home of the Cárdenas and Valdivia family is popularly known as "the Children of Don Gome", a reference to the ten children the couple had, and was built at the end of the 16th century. The Renaissance palace is built behind the Almohad wall and in the vicinity of the Puerta del Sol. The turreted façade was built at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th century. The house of the Children of Don Gome is made up of two elements of very different uses: the ancestral home of the inhabitants and the stables. On the façade of the house, built on a more advanced level than the stables, its tower-doorway stands out, built in sandstone, unlike the other elements of the complex. The tower-doorway was built in the second third of the 17th century by Don Gome de Valdivia, Cárdenas y Guzmán and Doña Mayor Nicuesa and is in the Baroque style. The cushioned façade almost goes unnoticed due to the exuberant decoration, two feathered tenants with an Indian accent, the heraldry applied in a repetitive manner and a prominent cornice, as the most outstanding elements. The Palacio de los Niños de Don Gome is the seat of the Autumn University courses. It houses the Professor Sotomayor Archaeological Museum. The stables with part of the cribs, an arcaded courtyard and the wine cellar are preserved. The latter houses the Casa del Alfarero (Potter's House), which encompasses the extensive and rich tradition of pottery that has characterised this land.

• Casa de Comedias - Town Hall. In 1787, the Town Council decided to move here, as it had lost its former function as the Corral de Comedias. The result of this remodelling is its Neoclassical style central body and the beautiful "Empire style" staircase. The current Town Hall is located in the building that was built between 1620-1631 as the Casa de Comedias, a function it maintained until 1680. Its beautiful façade is made up of three floors: the first floor has a portico and the second floor has a gallery that served as a lookout for the bullfighting festivities of the time. The building is crowned with a graceful balustrade, articulated on pillars topped with pinnacles. This façade has an Italianate orientation and can be placed within the most classicist Mannerism.

• Roman Bridge. Its construction dates from the end of the 2nd century, spanning the Guadalquivir River. Built with ashlars in sienna or brown sandstone, it has fourteen spans, of which the twelve on the right bank have semicircular arches and the other two are segmental. Like the bridge at Mérida, it has spillways or drainage arches on pillars to facilitate the passage of water in large floods.

• Basilica and Royal Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza. Located in the heart of the Sierra de Andújar Natural Park, in the area known as Cerro del Cabezo, 32 km north of the city of Andújar. The sanctuary was built between 1287 and 1304 and was renovated at the end of the 16th century. Since 1930 the Trinitarians have been worshipping in the sanctuary. The façade consists of a doorway, an arched balcony and a two-part belfry. The interior is a single-nave church with a barrel vault. The community of the Trinitarians enlarged the two side buildings to form a harmonious ensemble. The Basilica and Royal Sanctuary itself houses the Marian Museum, which contains an important artistic, documentary and anthropological display of the historical legacy that the devotion to the Virgen de la Cabeza has left behind over the centuries.

• González Orea Museum of Plastic Arts. Located in the former Convent of the Capuchin Mothers.

Nature

Andújar, head of the region of La Campiña de Jaén, with an area of almost 965 km², is the largest municipality in the province. An industrial and well-communicated city, it is the third most populated in the province, with a population of around 36,793 inhabitants.

Its municipal area is divided by the river Guadalquivir, with the Sierra de Andújar Natural Park to the north, belonging to the Sierra Morena, and the fertile plain and countryside to the south.

• The Vega of the Guadalquivir. The territory of the Vega del Guadalquivir is characterised by its very flat irrigated landscapes, with intensive crops (oranges, lemons and orchards). The olive oil, textile, wood furniture, handicrafts and ceramics industries are other sources of economic dynamism, together with the hotel and catering industry, which takes advantage of natural tourism and its strategic location, right on the Andalusian motorway. Of the five rural villages in the municipality of Andújar, four were built by the National Colonisation Institute to house the families of the farmers who moved to work on the land that was irrigated in the 1950s. The five hamlets of Andújar, which are located near the River Guadalquivir, on fertile, irrigated land, are: Llanos de Sotillo, La Ropera, Vegas de Triana, Los Villares and San José.

• Sierra de Andújar Natural Park. It concentrates important landscape and fauna and flora attractions, and extends through the bordering municipalities of Villanueva de la Reina, Baños de la Encina and Marmolejo, occupying an area of 74,774 hectares. Agriculture is very varied and dominated by olive groves, with livestock and big game hunting as the predominant agricultural activities. The Natural Park has the shape of an almost perfect equilateral triangle, and is a sample of the typical landscape of the Sierra Morena. A large number of emblematic species find their refuge here, between the Mediterranean scrubland and the dehesas in the heart of the park, the rugged sierras in the north and the dense pine forests in the south. The most characteristic species are the holm oak and cork oak in the form of pastureland, and at the higher altitudes where the humidity is higher, we find the gall oaks. Of the Park's hydrography we should highlight the river Jándula, a tributary of the Guadalquivir, with numerous streams that flow into it, forming numerous ponds and lagoons. In the municipality of Andújar we will find numerous places, paths and routes that will show us the beauty of this municipality, among them, the Junquillo path.

• Junquillo Path. This is an attractive and easy 5.7 km path which runs through a very representative area of the Sierra Morena and this natural park. Along the A-6178 road, some nineteen kilometres from the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza, you come to a junction with signs to Valdelagrana and Las Tapias, which is where the path begins. There is an abundance of dehesas in almost flat terrain and patches of Mediterranean scrubland, both populated by numerous animal species, including various birds, which are easily visible, and mammals, such as deer, wild boar, foxes and martens, which are difficult to spot but whose traces are easy to find. The Madrona and Quintana mountain ranges on the horizon, behind these plains, evoke the many legends that these uninhabited lands have inspired throughout history.

• Viñas de Peñallana Visitor Centre. The visitor centre is located at kilometre 13 of the A-6177 road that links the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza with the town of Andújar, at the entrance to the natural park, where visitors can find an initial approach to the different environments of the surroundings, walk through a recreated Mediterranean forest where they can identify plant species and their aromas or discover numerous emblematic endangered species that find refuge in these mountains; this is the case of the Iberian wolf, the imperial eagle or the Iberian lynx, the most endangered feline on the planet.

• Cercado del Ciprés Environmental Park. It is located in the town of Andújar (past the Alto Guadalquivir Hospital). The environmental park Cercado del Ciprés has an area of 11 hectares in which there is an artificial lake and a stream. In this enclosure the ecosystems of the Mediterranean forest and the typical riverside vegetation are represented. It also has different recreational areas such as: a bicycle path, an aviary, rustic huts, wooden kiosks, viewpoints and pedestrian paths. In the main building, there is an information point that offers orientation for the visit to the Sierra de Andújar Natural Park. Next to the Cercado del Ciprés Environmental Park is the only Honey Interpretation Centre in the whole of Andalusia, which, as its name suggests, is related to honey production.

• Recreational areas El Encinarejo, La Recta, El Jabalí. These are traditional leisure and recreational areas on the road leading to the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza, which have benches, barbecues, tables and containers, making them an excellent option for spending a day outdoors with the family. 
  In El Encinarejo, the characteristic vegetation is that of the riverside woods, ash trees, alder trees, serge, oleanders and tamarisk trees, which serve as a refuge for the fauna representative of this wetland area, such as grey herons, grebes, moorhens and, if we are lucky, we may even see an otter. Following the river bank you can reach the foot of the dam of the Encinarejo reservoir, a small lake-like reservoir. From El Encinarejo you can go on several hiking routes, for example, it is the starting point of the so-called Encinarejo trail. 
  The Recreational Area La Recreativa La Recta, 2.7 km long, is located on the left side of the road, on the banks of the river Jándula. A footpath starts there, for which permission must be requested 15 days in advance. 
  In the El Jabalí Recreation Area, there is a granite wild boar on some rocks. The GR-48, which comes from Encinarejo and goes all the way to the Sanctuary, runs along it. This is also the starting point of the El Jabalí trail, which is 3.2 km long and of medium difficulty.

Festivals and Events

Numerous festivals and events are held in the city of Andújar throughout the year, including the following:

Pilgrimage of the Virgen de la Cabeza. This is the most important fiesta, which dates back to the first half of the 13th century. It is held during the week of the last Sunday in April:

• On Thursday there is an offering of flowers to the Virgen de la Cabeza in the Town Hall square.

• Friday is the entrance of the brotherhoods from all over Spain over the Roman bridge.

• On Saturday people go up in carts and on horses to the shrine of the Virgin..

• On Sunday, with the sanctuary full of locals, everyone wants to see the mother of the Sierra Morena in procession through the carts.

After four hours strolling through the streets, the Virgin returns to her shrine, at which time the pilgrims return to their places of origin to await next year's pilgrimage. It has been declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest and an Asset of Cultural Interest.

Holy Week. This is considered the town's big week, and has been celebrated with great devotion and religiosity since ancient times. The artistic and cultural value of the images of the different brotherhoods and brotherhoods that make their processions through the streets is outstanding. Holy Week in Andujara begins on Palm Sunday with the brotherhood of La Borriquilla, reaching its maximum splendour on Holy Thursday with Nuestro Padre Jesús del Gran Poder (Our Father Jesus of Great Power).

Patron Saint's Day in honour of San Eufrasio. It is celebrated on 15th May. This saint, a disciple of the apostle St. James, has been important for the town since 1597, when a relic of the saint was brought to Andújar. Since then he has been its patron saint and he is worshipped and celebrated in his honour every year.

In addition, the following festivals are held: the Candelaria festival (2 February), Carnivals, May Crosses, the Divina Pastora festival (16 July) and Santiago Apóstol (25 July).

The following events, among others, also take place:

• Anducab. The Anducab Morphological-Functional competition has been held since 2004 and has become one of the five most important competitions in Spain, scoring for the competition at the International Horse Show (SICAB) held annually in Seville. The main objective of this fair is to offer the exhibition and sale of everything related to the world of horses.

• Forge and Ironwork Competition. This is a meeting of farriers from all over Spain who come together to show their skills in this modality, making horseshoes "in situ".

• Andalusian Agricultural Fair. Organised by the Jaén Farmers' Association, it is held over three days in October. It is attended by machinery and tool companies, institutional stands of the Administration and of different beauty products, honey, royal jelly, sweets, etc.

• Peñas Romeras Horse Riding. These are days of coexistence in which a pilgrimage is made on horseback to the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza, bringing together hundreds of riders who, with their horses and mules, ride along the "old road" through the Natural Park to the Sanctuary of the Virgin. These days are true "small pilgrimages" that are held throughout the year by different pilgrimage groups.

• Andújar Flamenca. This is a flamenco fashion show, held in the open air, in the Plaza del Mercado, a unique heritage site, which attracts more than 10,000 people over four days (Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and afternoon and Sunday morning).

• International Iberian Lynx Fair (FILYNX). The International Iberian Lynx Fair is a three-day tourism event for Nature observation, with a special focus on the Iberian Lynx, conservation tourism and ecotourism. Its first edition was in 2019.

Gastronomy

Andújar's gastronomy is typical of the mountain villages. Everything revolves around the culinary jewel that is extra virgin olive oil, and the wide variety of typical products of the land. The game meat provided by the natural environment of Andújar, together with the vegetables from the rich soil irrigated by the river Guadalquivir.

We can taste the following dishes:

• Pipirrana: a salad whose basic ingredients are onion, tomato, green pepper and cucumber. Sometimes boiled egg is added, as well as some kind of fish, meat or even sausages.

• "Andrajos': cooked in the broth from boiling small game with mint and a stir-fry of vegetables and strips of shredded flour dough from which it takes its name.

• "Ajoharina': A sofrito is made with tomato, onion, potato and aubergine. The dried red peppers are toasted in a frying pan and then crushed in a mortar and pestle with cumin and salt. When everything is ready, add water and flour to thicken.

• Carne de monte (bush meat), preferably venison, which is stewed with potatoes and vegetables.

• Flamenquín: which originated in Andújar. There is also a variant called flarosquín, or, in other words, a circular flamenquín.

In confectionery we can highlight: panetes de Semana Santa (Easter bread rolls), fried roscos, suspiros and enredos.

History

Andújar is in a privileged position as a crossroads of trade routes and roads for the movement of populations, which would explain the penetration of artistic and cultural influences from different origins. The proximity of the Guadalquivir River would be an incentive for the settlement of populations. The oldest remains that have been found date back to the Palaeolithic period, but it was in the Neolithic, the first part of the Bronze Age, when the settlement of the area intensified, due to its fertile land for the development of agriculture and the development of mining in the Sierra Morena. The first people to settle there were the Oretanos, an Iberian people, who founded the ancient Isturgi on the site now occupied by the hamlet of Los Villares de Andújar.

Everything indicates that it was a flourishing city during Roman rule, linked to the production and commercialisation of High-Imperial pottery (1st - 2nd centuries). At the end of Roman rule, the population moved to a nearby place, the present-day town of Andújar, losing the name of Isturgi with the arrival of Islam. In 711, after the Battle of Guadalete, the entire southern part of the peninsula became Al-Andalus. The population moved from Los Villares to what is now Andújar.

In 1225, the town was conquered by Fernando III "El Santo", and the Christian troops of the orders of Santiago and Calatrava settled in the town. The Muslim population abandoned the towns of Andújar, Martos and Baeza, and the first Christian settlers began to move in. King Enrique IV, in 1467, granted it the title of City. This marked the beginning of a period of demographic growth and an increase in farmland, reaching a population of 13,000 inhabitants by the end of the 16th century. The population was mainly made up of stockbreeders and farmers. In 1808 it was occupied by French troops, where General Dupont established his headquarters. From here he sent his troops to Bailén, a battle in which he was defeated. 

During the Spanish Civil War, Andújar remained on the Republican side, which meant it was bombed by Franco's troops, resulting in deaths and future reprisals from both sides. Today, the town of Andújar continues to have a part of its population occupied in the agricultural sector, it also has modern industries, and the tourism sector is opening up to showcase its rich artistic and natural heritage, which means that it can face its future with optimism.