Campillo de Arenas

Campillo de Arenas is located in the south-east area of Sierra Mágina, it is part of it due to the communications and close to the mountainous area of the region in Sierra Sur. Campillo de Arenas is eminently a mountainous village, in which we can find forest lands, constant grazing and thymes-esparto fields, that alternate in all the west and north area of Campillo de Arenas and where we can find plentiful of natural enclaves, emphasizing the marsh of Quiebrajano and the one of Cañada de las Hazadillas. The main economic activity is the olive grove, complemented with the birds, goats and porcine farming, the pork by-products are also important, together with the hotel trade surroundings of the motorway in Granada.

Referring to the history, excepting in the origins, we cannot have many remains that can relate the village to one particular civilization.

There are some facts, arisen from the excavations made in places like Casablanca, Cañada de las Viñas, Cerro de los Cantos, Cerro Prieto and the Cerro del Castillo. There were found some remains of civilizations such as the Iberian, Roman, Visigoth and Arab, from the latter we can find some remains of the castle Arenas that is located in the Summit of a high hill that is known like the Cerro del Castillo and that was a strong bastion of the Nasrid Kingdom in Granada, playing and important role in the fights between Moorish and Christians, of the kingdoms of Jaén and Granada.

At the end of XV century and once the reconquest was finished and obtained the unit of Spanish by the Catholic Monarchs, it is started the repopulation process of all the lands that had been depopulated, a process ordered by the Queen Dª Juana de Castilla.  
In the mountain range of Jaén some places are repopulated, between them Campillo de Arenas, that was founded by the Real Cédula in 1508.

Due to different reasons the Real Cédula is not fulfilled until 4the June, 1539, from that moment started the repopulation.

The licentiate Juan de Ribadeneira was the judge who distributed them, and it preceded the shanty town of the new village in a place in which there were some houses, a country inn and a little church, consecrated to the Santísimo Sacramento, we also can find a graveyard.

The inhabitants that lived together with the settlers added 134 people, who were ruled by two mayors, elected by the settlers for two years. These mayors were: Sebastián Ruiz de la Muela and Sebastián Pérez de Morales.

We can observe that in the design of the village the square would be the nucleus from where derive the rest of the streets, in it we can find the Church and the Town Hall, around it 175 building sites were designed for those families who came to repopulate the new village.

The new village depended on Jaén, until their inhabitants asked Felipe II to concede the exemption of belonging to Jaén, which was conceded in Toledo on 24 December, 1559, taking the title of villa with all the rights and duties.

Monuments

Parish Church of Ntra. Sra. de la Encarnación
Hermitage of Patrona Santísima Virgen de la Cabeza
Hermitage of Santa Lucía
Ruins of the Castillo de Arenas

Gastronomy

The gastronomy of Campillo de Arenas, with a history of shelters and taverns, is rich in receipts. Between them we can find the gazpacho (Andalusian cold soup), fried breadcrumbs, andrajos (flour flat cake with tomato, onion, garlic, red pepper and rabbit , fricassée of hen, trotters or desserts such as roscos de salte, nochebuenos, almendraos, gusanillos and hornazos (Easter cakes).

How to get there

Campillo de Arenas is located to 38 kilometres from Jaén, from you can get taking the Motorway A-44 towards Granada-Motril, then take the exit 74 which leads us to Campillo de Arenas.

Distances

To Jaén 38 km
To Cárchel 17 km
To Noalejo 4,5 km
To Poloria 19 km
To Montillana 21 km
To Montejícar 33 km
To Carchelejo 16 km
To Campotéjar 12 km
To Cotilfar Baja 27 km
To Dehesas Viejas 18 km