Linares
Linares is an important town located in the centre of the province, at the foot of Sierra Morena, surrounded by holm-oak woods, cork tress and olive plantations. We can observe in its lands remains of chimneys and other industrial ruins what shows that it had a mining past.
At present Linares is the most important industrial centre of the province, as we can observe in its urban appearance, an eclectic mix and rather amorphous in styles and periods, a common characteristic in the towns that grow in a fast and disorganized manner.
It preserves, however, some remains of its rich and varied past, in the shape of Monuments, churches, large houses and buildings of interest: Church of Santa María la Mayor, Church of S. Francisco, Front of the Palacio de Justicia, Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de Linarejos, Hospital of Los Marqueses de Linares, Palace Zambrana, Casa Pajares, Old Granary, the House of La Munición, the House Museum of Andrés Segovia and the Bullring, that is sadly famous due to the death of the famous bullfighter called Manolete.
Other buildings of interest are the ruins of the Roman town of Cástulo, the Roman Bridge of Piélago, the Castle of Tobaruela, the Reservoirs of Guadalén and Fernandina and the remains of the Foundries of S. Luis y la Cruz.
The historic origins of Linares, like «following» of the old Cástulo, date from the Bronze Age in its Argárica stage (Middle Bronze), a period where we can find the first archaeological finds. Linares is an important economic nucleus due to its mining wealth in lead and silver, worked by the Iberians; an attraction centre for the Greeks and Phoenicians colonizing towns, and later for the Carthaginians, Cástulo turns into a federated town under the Roman Empire («civitas liberae et inmunes») and in the mining centre that controls the sites of the region in a within a radius of 40 kilometres with a network of important communication routes: towards Levante (Via Augusta); to Córdoba through Iliturgi or through Epora; to Malaca and to Mentesa, having also a waterway and found remains of a Quay over the River Guadalimar.
During the Visigoth stage Cástulo is a see, diocese that has its origin in the Roman Age, and that it is interrupted at the end of the VII century being the X Concilio de Toledo the last to what the castulonendes bishops assist.
The Moslem Qastuluna period is the scenario of the definitive battle between Abderramán I and Yusut; and later between Abderrarnán III and Shaliya, rebel «muladí», preserving the remains of the Arab castle that Shaliya occupied for lmost twenty years.
It is from here on this period, with the decadence of Cástulo, when it starts to come up around a castle or fortress, whose mission was the one of being front-line of Cástulo, the town was known first like a place and later like Villa de Linares. During the Reconquest this fortress was a refuge and hostel to the Christian army, being conquered, at the same time as Baeza, in 1227.
During the XIV and XV centuries had a time of social and politics instability, reflected in frequents fights between lineages and towns. In the middle of the XVI century thanks to the increase of its population and its economic blossoming and due to its agricultural and livestock farmer wealth, Linares gets the title of Villa from Felipe II. In this time Linares is a feudal town that based its richness in the agricultural possessions; its urban configuration is due to this social situation: a medieval core around the church and the castle, where there lived the gentlemen and the clergy, and a group of areas, whose economic activity is aimed at the country.
Linares also suffers the gradual deterioration of all the giennense area during the XVII and XVIII centuries. But in the XIX century Linares has a categorical transformation: the exploitation of its lead mines turns it into a rich industrial and commercial area, what makes that it had 6.000 inhabitants in 1849 and 36.000 in 1877; the railway for the public and goods transport; next to the foreign investments comes up a new technology that provides the linarense mining industry its first years of expansion, and in 1875, with Real Decreto, Alfonso XII gives to Linares the title of Town. The transformation of the town is excellent: its area is expanded of medieval-renaissance town with the project of expansion in 1871; we can observe residential areas with straight streets and single houses; there were built parks and squares with gardens reminiscent of the Levantine modernism; a new «town» is created, that, although partly was inside the old quarter, it is modernized at the beginning of the XX century with commercial and banks buildings, setting out the guideline that other towns have to follow.
Monuments
Church of Santa María la Mayor, XII century. Roman, Gothic and Renaissance styles are mixed. It is built over an old mosque.
Church of San Francisco, XVI century. Baroque Andalusian style.
Front of the Law courts, XVIII century. Old hospital of San Juan de Dios.
Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de los Linarejos, 1950.
Casa del Torreón.
Palace Zambrana, XVII century.
Hospital of los Marqueses de Linares. Neogothic style and where it is located the Mausoleum of the Marqueses.
Casa Pajares, XVII century.
Granary, XVIII century.
House of the Munición, XVIII century. In this place the coins were minted.
Town Hall, XVIII century. The atrium is from the XIX century.
Castle of Tobaruela, XV century. Renaissance style.
Archaeological Remains
Cástulo. Ruins of the Roman town.
Country House of El Ahorcado. Remains of Roman baths.
Roman Bridge of Piélago. It is part of the old Hereclea route during the Roman Age.
Foundries of San Luis and La Cruz, at the end of XIX century. Old foundries. They had mines and installations for the workers.
Town Planning
Bullring. In it died in 1947 the bullfighter Manolete.
Fountain of El Pisar.
Museums
Archaeological Museum. Located in the old palace called Dávamos or house of El Tower. In it we can observe pieces from the Bronze Age until the Middle Age. The most interesting are the ones from Cástulo.
Casa Museo of Andrés Segovia, XVII century.
Gastronomy
The gastronomy of Linares is linked to the gastronomy of the province, and most of the products used in their dishes are common and has like common denominator, the olive oil that enhances the taste in the stews and salads, without forgetting the seasonal olives.
Together with this traditional dishes, some of them influenced by the Islamic cuisine, such as the oatmeal porridges, fried breadcrumbs, gazpacho, ajo blanco (cold soup with bread, crushed almonds, garlic, water, olive oil, salt), andrajos (stew of cake flour with a sauce of tomato, onion, garlic, red pepper and rabbit), pipirrana (salad with onion, tomato and pepper) and roscos de anís, appears some with mining ancestry like the potatoes with cod, potatoes with paprika and the remojón using oranges salad, cod, olives, spring onion and olive oil, and we can mention other that come from the migrating shepherds of Soria like the "perolo", using chestnuts, aniseed and prunes.
How to get there
You have to exit Jaén and continue in J-14. In the roundabout you have to take the exit 2 and continue in E-902 / A-44 towards Bailén - Madrid. Then take the exit towards: Salida 3 - Bailén - A-32 - Linares - Albacete - Úbeda. In the roundabout take the exit 1 and continue in N-322 towards Linares - Albacete - Úbeda. Then continue the road of Jabalquinto. Then you get Linares.
Distances
To Jaén 54 km
To Bailén 13 km
To Baeza 21 km
To Úbeda 28 km
To Mengíbar 23 km
To Vilches 21 km
To Navas de San Juan 35 km
To Torreperogil 35 km
To Fuerte del Rey 56 km |
