Description
The building was built by the architect Francisco del Castillo between 1557- 1577 on behalf of Governor Pedro Aboz Enríquez and Mr Antonio de Padilla Meneses, Justice Mayor of Calatrava in the Kingdom of Jaén.
The construction is part of an ambitious plan for the beautification of the city of Martos, seeking to create a capital worthy of the Endowment according to its Roman legacy. Urbanistically the façade of the Cárcel would vertebrate the space of the main square of the city (current Plaza de la Constitución), also remodeling the nearby church of Santa Marta and the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de la Villa, and having in the central part of the square the Fuente de Neptuno, disappeared work of which we have references in the History of the Peña de Martos de Diego de Villalta. In addition to this intervention in the main square, new roads and spaces would be built, such as the street and the square of the Fuente Nueva, the district of the Heras, the street of the Albollón, etc., and a series of convents and churches were also founded.
The main façade of the Prison is structured as a double gallery of half-point arches supported by dogrous columns (four arches on the lower floor and six on the upper floor), the cover being located in a decentralized way on the right side (on which a blind balcony is available as a temple, topped with a straight fronton). In the jets of the central part of the upper arcade we find heraldic shields, killing the whole facade with a large cornice.
