Cazalilla

Cazalilla is a municipality that belongs to Jaén, located in the La Campiña, to 31 Kilometres from the capital.

Cazalilla has an area of 46,63 Km2. The city centre is situated between 37º 59' North Latitude and 3º 53' West Latitude, and to 300 metres above sea level.

The inhabitants are called Cazalilleros. Its main productive activity is the grapevine, cereals and the olive tree. 

We can say that the human presence in Cazalilla is documented from the Copper Age (III millennium B. C.), for the pottery of this period found in its urban area and for the settlement of the Coronilla Hill in the Country Estate of La Atalaya, located over a hill with a wonderful views and fortified. Around II millennium this centre is left and it was occupied again at the end of VI BC, during the ancient stage of the Iberian culture.

During the Roman Age there was a disperse population, probably villae, one of them located in what nowadays is Cazalilla.

From the Arab Age there was found in the village a sepulchral tombstone with the epitaph of a person called Ahmad b. Mauro o Mawru who died in 885. Although the tombstone confirms the existence of Cazalilla during the Moslem Age, when the investigators examined the word Mauro o Mawru, think that the town would exist during the Visigoth Age, because it is a name with a Latin root that could show this person was a Muladi (a Christian converted to Islam).

During the Castilian conquest, it appears the name of Caztalliella in the delimitation between Jaén and Martos, a word that has been identified with the present-day Cazalilla. In the Sínodo of 1311 it appears like one the parish in the archpriesthood of Jaén.

In the second half of XV century, during the war between the nobility and the king Enrique IV, Cazalilla is appointed occasionally relative to its castle. One of the most significant events was the occurred 23 December, 1471, in which Fernando de Acuña, earl Buendía’s son, nephew of the archbishop Toledo, was captured by the mayor of the castle Diego de Frías, and he was turned in to the top-ranking officer Iranzo. Of this castle we only have a drawing made by Ximena Jurado in XVII century.

This was not the only castle that existed during the Medieval Asge in Cazalilla, to five kilometres there was the Castle of María Martín, in which its tower has disappeared, that was made of irregular masonry.

During the Modern Age the town follows the same guidelines as the rest of the province, socioeconomic recovery in XVI century and crisis in XVII century and part of XVIII. In Un XVII century we have to emphasize the institutional change to villa, its jurisdictional segregation from Jaén, until to date it had belonged like small village (aldea). 

Monuments

Parish Church of Santa María Magdalena

Gastronomy

Fried breadcrumbs. Salmorejo (a cream of tomato and bread). Ajoblanco. Sobas (Noodles). Beans. Marinated wild boar. Pickling partridge. Rabbit with bordonera sauce. Rabbit with thyme. Rabbit with jarón. Venison with bañusca. Asparges in sauce. Hunting stews.

Sweets: Oatmeal porridges with honey. Pestiños.

How to get there

You have to exit Jaén and continue by the road J-14. In the roundabout take the exit 2 and continue by the road E-902 / A-44 towards: Bailén - Madrid. Take the exit towards: Salida 18 - Villargordo – Mengibar and continue towards Mengíbar. Take the Motorway A-6000 and continue by A-313 towards: Mengíbar. Then you have to cross Mengíbar. Take JV-2302 and you get Cazalilla.

Distances

To Jaén 31 km 
To Mengíbar 7,5 km  
To Lahiguera 13 km  
To Arjona 22 km  
To Villanueva de la Reina 4,5 km  
To Fuerte del Rey 27 km  
To Jabalquinto 19 km  
To Villagordo 17 km  
To Espelúy 9 km