The current Canena Castle is a compact palatial building with a rectangular layout, built from irregular masonry and mortar. The south-east side of the castle, which houses the entrance, is protected by two cylindrical towers at its corners and a moat. The corners on the opposite side also have towers; however, they are slimmer and much shorter, only reaching the same height as the terrace that runs the full length of the west façade (which they are part of). 

Inside we find the square-shaped keep, crowned by small pinnacles that some experts believe pre-date this site and were brought from the castle that served as the seat of the Benavides family. A double cornice runs around the entire circumference of both the upper and lower sections of the keep, and between them the coats of arms of Francisco de los Cobos and María de Mendoza are embedded, supported by heraldic figures.

The various openings in the castle walls include artillery embrasures in the shape of splayed segmental arches, which can be found in the circular towers on the main façade and at the top of the façade itself. The upper section of the south wall features a gallery with four segmental arches supported by columns with composite capitals, as well as a stone balustrade.

The south-east wall houses the entrance to the building’s interior, located next to the south tower. The entrance is set into a semi-circular arch with large keystones, above which is an entablature resting on pilasters. This is topped by another semi-circular arch with a tympanum bearing the coat of arms of Francisco de los Cobos and María de Mendoza, supported by fantastical heraldic figures. The entrance is crowned by three torch-holders, above which we can see the grooves for the mechanism that operated the old drawbridge over the moat (nowadays fixed in place).

Inside the castle, the rooms are laid out on two floors around a square-shaped courtyard. The lower gallery is comprised of semi-circular arches resting on columns with back-to-front Ionic capitals. The upper gallery boasts a lintel held up by large, decorative bases, which themselves rest on columns with front-facing Ionic capitals.

Inside the building there are rooms with impressive friezes featuring heraldic, floral and fantastical motifs.

Canena was part of the erstwhile region of Baeza, which appears to have changed hands by means of treaties in the years following the arrival of the Muslim forces in the Iberian Peninsula in 711. 

By the 10th century, most of the province of Jaén formed part of the kura (region) of Yayyan, which included the settlement of Bayyasa (Baeza). Bayyasa was the hub of an administrative district that extended from the River Guadalquivir to the Sierra Morena mountains and included Canena, a hisn which was then known as Kinana. This name may have derived from the Banu Kinana, an Arab tribe that settled in the area. They would have chosen this site because of the plentiful water nearby and its proximity to the routes of communication between the Upper Guadalquivir and meseta regions.

In 1226, Baeza passed into Christian hands, at which point it is likely that Canena and the rest of its district also came under Christian control. Following this conquest, there are no more references to Canena in the documentary sources, although initially it would have remained under the jurisdiction of Baeza. Part of the village was granted to the Order of Santiago prior to 1236, the year when sources mention a commander who was a member of the Order. However, it is possible that part of Canena was still controlled by the Council of Baeza until 1274, when it passed into the hands of the Order of Calatrava and became part of the Commandery of Torres and Canena. By 1279, it had been divided into two districts belonging to the Orders of Calatrava and Santiago. 

The Order of Calatrava carried out major fortification work to its properties in the Sierra Mágina mountains and the regions of Campiña and La Loma. Canena Castle, shared by both of the orders, would probably have been strengthened at this time, and was the root of numerous conflicts between its two owners. 

Between 1302 and 1353, the district belonging to the Order of Calatrava came under the jurisdiction of Baeza once again. It was subsequently returned to the hands of the Commandery, which retained control over it until the middle of the 15th century. In turn, at the start of the 14th century, the Order of Santiago added Bedmar and Albanchez to its holdings, which along with the Santiago quarter in Canena, created the Order’s second Commandery in the area of Jaén.

During the second half of the 15th century, two families fought for control over Baeza. In 1472, Sancho de Benavides seized the part of Canena that had belonged to the Order of Calatrava, in order to counter the Carvajal family’s acquisition of Tobaruela Castle and feudal estate. Tobaruela occupied a strategic position overlooking the neighbouring town of Jabalquinto, which was owned by the Benavides family. Some years later, in response to the fortification work carried out by Benavides in Canena, Baeza made a complaint to the Catholic Monarchs (Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon), who had forbidden the construction of new fortresses in the area in order to put an end to fighting between noble families. In 1494, the castle was described as having been “torn down to its foundations”, although this may only refer to the part formerly belonging to the Order of Calatrava. It is not known whether the fortification work in question consisted of renovating the existing castle or building a new one, and no records of the location of this castle have survived. 

As a result of the expropriation of the Orders’ possessions during the 16th century, many feudal landholdings passed into secular hands. Francisco de los Cobos, private secretary and Secretary of State to Emperor Charles V, acquired the towns of Sabiote, Torres, Canena, Jimena and the demesne of Recena, which together formed a large feudal estate. After gaining control over all of Canena in 1539, he unified the two districts and commissioned Andrés de Vandelvira to build a palatial castle: the magnificent Renaissance structure still standing today.