Description
During the Middle Ages the castle of Jimena played an important defensive role, along with other castles of Sierra Magina, in front of the Nazari kingdom of Granada. In 1434 he was given to the Order of Calatrava, which reformed his defenses and especially the tower of tribute. Its tower of tribute is square floor, built in masonry and eskineer chairs, and has a careful internal organization on two floors covered with cross vaults, as well as a basement.
Since the late 9th century, Jimena has been part of a series of scattered alqueries held by the Banu Habil, the Muladic rebels who faced the authority of the emir'Abd Allah.
Because of their proximity to Granada, Almohades and Nazaris, they conquered it and fortified it successively.
Jimena was conquered by Fernando III in 1234 and integrated into the lands of the Baeza Council. In 1284 it became the property of Don Pedro Ruy de Berrio.
The castle of Jimena replaced that of Garcíez from the 13th century, from which it is four kilometres from that of Garcíez. After the Almohades took away Garcia Gordillo, the Christians warned the need to replace the old Muslim fortress with a more modern and defensible one and built that of Jimena.
In addition, the displacement of this strategic point would be given by the need to control the route from the Jandulilla basin, bordering the northern foothills of the Aznaitín in search of the plains of Real Mancha.
In 1364, Jimena was a lordship of Herranz Rodríguez, from which she spent seven years, to Maria Gracia de Godoy, a woman of Sancho Díaz de Torres, in advance of Cazorla. At the end of the 14th (1397), he was dubbed by Ruy López Dávalos.
On an undetermined date, after 1401, it was conquered by the Muslims, in whose power it remained until 1431 when Pedro García de Herrera managed to conquer it by surprise, with night escalation. Three years later, King John II created the Order of Calatrava and Mr. Luis de Guzmán was appointed master. The Order of Calatrava reformed its defenses and especially the tower of tribute.
The Muslims won it back soon and lost it again in 1457, won by Henry IV who granted it to the Order of Calatrava, in whose power it remained a few years. In 1462 the king gave it to Don Beltran of the Cave.
In the 16th century, Jimena, together with Baeza, participated in the communal conflict in the Castile of Carlos V, even served as a hidden reduction to communeros. After these events were completed, he was sold by Emperor Charles V to his secretary, Don Francisco de los Cobos, expropriating him to the Calatravos.
From this date Jimena was the lord of Don Francisco de los Cobos and after his descendants the Marquis of Camarasa, until the extinction of the master privileges in 1812.
In 1985 the castle of Jimena was declared Good of Cultural Interest.
Description
The only remarkable rest of the castle of Jimena is its tower of tribute, of a square base and twenty meters high, was built by Christians, late 13th century or early 14th century, with regular masonry and saddle chains on the corners. The tower is preserved mocha and with the corners reinforced by armchairs ready to rope and sawn.
The tower of tribute has a dedicated internal organization on two floors covered with cross vaults. On the second floor there are three bars-moulded vanos, and a basement that could be identified with the aljibe.
Its facade, somewhat irregular, opens with a half-point arch on striated pilasters. It exhests the shields of the Marquis of Camarasa, successors of the family of the Cobos, who have possessed it since the late 18th century.
The entrance of the castle is identified with the bow of the Council, covered with a half-barrel vault and supported on the Tribute tower.
The characteristic external castrense aspect of the calvia fortifications contrasts with the palaciega aesthetics and the interior distribution of the two plants ornamented to the gothic taste - mudejar as shown by the semi-columns with vegetable capitals.
Once his military function was lost, the castle of Jimena was used for some time as an olive mill, in addition to having been used as a family home.
Some vestiges of wall canvases are kept very hidden by the house, some of them from the Islamic era.
Is part of
