To the east of the current town of Cabra del Santo Cristo, a few meters from the town, there is a mountainous hill, called Cerro San Juan, where the Castillo de Cabra and the old town are located. With an altitude of 950 meters, it dominates the western slope of the Arroyo del Rollo valley, being the most comfortable access on its western face, through a lane of ancient origin. Today, the plateau is planted with olive groves and a dovecote has been built on top.

According to the detailed description made by Tomás Quesada,? It is a polygonal construction of which remains of three towers remain, in the Northeast, Northwest and South sectors, and a wall that joins the Northeast and Northwest towers. Of the three towers, the best preserved is the one located to the Northeast, with a rectangular plan whose dimensions are 4.60 by 4 meters on each side. and built with irregular masonry walls joined with hard mortar of lime and sand, presenting inside the remains of plaster and part of the original soil. The conserved height varies from 0.85 to 1.60 meters, being able to observe mechinales of two layers. On the external face of the North wall, there are two lower courses of masonry made of a material different from the rest of the construction and of greater dimensions; observing in one of them a hole that must have served as a drain.

In the towers of the Northwest and South sectors, much worse preserved than the first, barely several courses of masonry are preserved, in the best of cases. The construction characteristics are similar to those of the other tower. The thickness of the walls ranges between 60 and 100 centimeters, with parts of the structures being buried.

Today, barely a canvas is preserved from the castle wall that runs between the Northeast and Northwest towers, almost 20 meters long, verifiable only in some points and executed with the same technique and materials as the towers.

At the top of the hill, a small angled structure has been identified that protrudes 40 centimeters from the ground, which could be a corner of the wall that hints at the rectangular layout. On the slopes there are also important construction remains, such as, for example, vestiges of the perimeter wall on the escarpment, although this was of little importance, being sculpted in the rock and completed with a strong parapet.

The southern slopes are the most abundant remains of construction materials (mortar, tiles, bricks and remains of soil), which indicate the possibility that a population attached to the fortification might be located in this area. Mill wheels of difficult classification have also been found. Recently a circular structure in lime mortar has been identified that could well be a cistern or a cistern.

Apparently, the fortification would only be destined to be the refuge of the population in case of danger.

History

Certain constructive aspects of the castle, such as the rectangular plan (following the plan of a primitive Roman camp) and the existence of Roman ceramics on the surface, have led Juan Eslava to give the site an origin in Roman times, on which it would be located more later a Muslim settlement and later another Christian from the thirteenth century, to which would correspond the remains that we can see today in the castle. According to the abundant ceramic remains found throughout the hill, the site would be ascribable to a chronological stage that would go from the X-XI to the XIII centuries, although the most abundant, perhaps because they are from the last phase of Islamic occupation, are ascribable to the Almohad phase: stamped; painted ceramic (iron or manganese oxide on light pastes with very simple motifs); glazed (monochrome in various shades and manganese on honey).

In addition, the name "Cabra" belongs to that class of pre-Arab place names (in this case, with a clear Latin root) that lead us to think about the persistence of Arabized Muladi groups that would maintain this place name. They would share the space with the new groups settled in the area from the eleventh century, which would explain why typically Islamic fortifications maintain a pre-Arab name.

Written Christian sources begin to cite this castle from 1245, when it was conquered by the Castilians, being the last bastion that the Muslims maintained on the left bank of the Jandulilla. The place would be occupied by treaty by Fernando III. Alfonso X gave it to the Council of Baeza in 1254, with the intention of providing the latter with a corridor that would connect with the Nasrid border. The cession was made on the condition that the people of Ubeta respect the Muslim population of Cabra. Despite this, it seems that the area would gradually depopulate. The proximity to the Nasrid border and the poverty of the lands were not attractive to the Castilian repopulators. This fact, together with the constant disputes with the Muslims, led to this area being defined as a true no-man's-land (and probably even more so after the Mudejar revolt of 1264). Proof of this situation is a curious lawsuit, dated 1417, caused by the theft by the Ubetans of the cattle that the Muslims had brought to the pastures of Cabra. This document doubts the ownership of the lands: they did not know if they belonged to the Council of Úbeda or the Kingdom of Granada, which gives an idea of ??their depopulated situation. The ceramic remains also attest to this situation, not finding fragments after the 13th century. It seems that, at most, a guard post could have survived at Úbeda's expense.

Around 1545, this area was to be repopulated by Carlos I, becoming the territorial dominion of the Marquis de la Rambla. At the end of the 18th century we find it already as a royal village, the castle already being demolished and abandoned, when the urban nucleus was expanded.