Vilches

The town of Vilches is located to the north-east of the province, with an area of 272,2 km2, what is the 2,01% of the total inhabitants in the province. It has two annexes, Guadalén and Miraelrío, which are villages with a recent colonization.
 
At south it borders on Canena, Úbeda, Ibros and Rus; at east on Navas de San Juan and Arquillos; at west on Linares and Carboneros; and at north on La Carolina, Santa Elena and Aldeaquemada.

Prehistory and Classical Antiquity

From the Copper Age we can find the site of Santagón. The area of the village, nowadays planted with olives, does not allow seeing remains of constructions, but we can observe many pieces of ceramics. This village should date from the year 2.000 B. C., coinciding with the colonization of the cereal-growing lands included between the southern mountain range of Jaén and Sierra Morena.

We have to mention another important settlement, from the Bronze Age, in the south limit of Vilches. It is the settlement of El Cerro del Salto. To one kilometre from it you can find another defensive settlement, located on El Cerro de la Cruz or La Atalayuela, and that seems to complete the defensive structure of the previous one.

From the Iberian period we can also find important remains in Vilches. Inside the influence area of Cástulo we can find the Iberian village of Giribaile, whose fortifications and spaciousness show its huge importance in the region. The old historians refer to this town like Giri. The naming Giribaile appears from the Middle Age.
Giribaile survives after the Roman conquest. Even Romans and girisenos live together in the castro like show the shared remains of ceramics found. According to the division that Rome makes of the conquered Hispania, the region to which Vilches belonged was included in the Hispania Ulterior.

The reconstruction of the Roman past of Vilches could have carried out through the analysis of the literary sources and the pieces of information provided by the epigraphic and archaeological finds. Between the remains found we can list the tombstone of the miner child called Quinto Artulo, four years old, from Antoninos age that was found between Baños and Vilches and is kept in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional.

There is a cipo funerario (a short stone pilar used as a burial monument, as a boundary mark or as a signpost or milestone) found in the mine Men Baca, between Linares and Vilches, that tells us about a citizen of Egelesta (located in Vilches). We can also observe many numismatics finds (ases, antoninianos, maiorinas, centenionales), but perhaps, the most interesting ones are the headstones found that show that the roman name of Vilches was BAESUCCI. One of them appeared in the hill of El Castillo and that in 76 B.C. commemorates the awarding to Baesucci (Vilches) of the title of town by the emperor Vespasiano.

Middle Ages

Due to its strategic enclave, we have to suppose that Vilches also was occupied by the Visigoths. After the year 711 it was quickly occupied by the Moslems, attracted by the proximity of the mines of Cástulo and the passing of the old Roman routes.

During the Taifa kingdoms (independent Muslim kingdom in Iberian peninsula), Vilches belonged to the party of  the king Al-Mutamid from Sevilla and, later, with the Almoravid and Almohad invasion its defensive character is reinforced, being included in the Al-Andalus kingdom of Hamlakat Yayyan. July, 16th 1212 the Christians defeated in the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, what gives them way of the Valle del Guadalquivir. In the chronicle of Rodrigo Ximenez de la Rada tells that: “After the victory of Las Navas de Tolosa the king Alfonso ordered Rodrigo Garcez de Asa ... to attack the castle of Vilches. The extermination of the town after the Castilian conquest makes to repopulate the region with inhabitants beyond Sierra Morena. During the XIII century were given privileges and the process of repopulation, and then Vilches is dependent on Baeza.

Modern History

In 1627 Felipe IV gives Vilches the title of Villa, becoming independent from Baeza. In the following centuries, new repopulation processes limit the municipal district of La Villa in order to create the new city centres of Arquillos, Carboneros, La Carolina and Santa Elena.

Monuments

Castle of Giribaile
Castle of El Cerro de la Virgen
Hermitage of La Virgen

Gastronomy

We can mention some typical dishes such as: jarapos con liebre (elongated dough with hare and condiments), migas (bread, lard, garlic, oil, pork scratching, bacon and salt), parpajotes (milk, yeast, eggs, salt, oil, flour, sugar and cinnamon), etc

How to get there

You have to exit Jaén and continue in J-14. In the roundabout you have to take the salida 2 and continue in the road E-902 / A-44 towards Bailén - Madrid. Then take the exit towards: Salida 3 - Bailén - A-32 - Linares - Albacete - Úbeda. In the roundabout you have to take the salida 1 and continue in N-322 towards: Linares - Albacete - Úbeda. Then you have to continue in: Carretera de Jabalquinto. Then you have to get Linares and continue in the Motorway A-312. Then turn left in JV-6036. Then you get Vilches.

Distances

To Jaén 69 km
To Baeza 41 km
To Bailén 33 km
To Linares 20 km
To Arquillos 13 km
To Guarromán 27 km
To La Carolina 15 km
To Santa Elena 22 km
To Baños de la Encina 35 km
To Navas de San Juan 24 km
To Santisteban del Puerto 38 km