Bujalance

Bujalance sits on one of the oldest natural routes through southern Iberia, between Córdoba and Jaén, and its fertile soil and underground water made it attractive to settlers across every era. The earliest finds date to the Chalcolithic, including a fibrolite axe discovered south of Belmonte. Pre-Roman Iberian culture left clearer marks: a stone funerary sculpture of a dog or feline known as the León de Bujalance, a silver fibula decorated with a hunting scene, and banded ceramic pottery. Every major culture of Baetica appears to have settled here.

In Roman times the site became a road junction, where the paved road linking Córdoba with Porcuna and Montoro passed through. Around twenty Roman rural villas have been catalogued in the surrounding area. The town even has a shadowy walk-on part in the wars between Julius Caesar and Pompey: Caesar's forces retreated along this very road after the Pompeians fortified Porcuna, with the campaign eventually ending at Munda. Historians have proposed several Roman names for the settlement — Bursabolis, Colonia Baetis, Calpurniana, Vogia — but none is conclusively proven.

The entire old town was declared a protected historic-artistic ensemble in 1983, recognised for its coherent Andalusian architecture combining Arab heritage with an almost intact Baroque streetscape.

The fortress — known locally as the Alcazaba, though historians note it functioned as a military alcázar rather than a residential medina — was built in 935 during the Caliphate of Abd al-Rahman III. Its original Arabic name, Burj al-Hanash (Tower of the Serpent), and its original seven towers are the source of the town's name and coat of arms. The rectangular structure measures 59 metres north to south and 51 metres east to west. Only three of the seven towers survive: the Torre de la Mazmorra, the Torre del Malvavisco, and the Torre de las Palomas. Declared a national monument in 1963, its courtyard now hosts summer cultural events. A last major repair was commissioned by Queen Joanna I of Castile in 1512.

The parish church of the Asunción stands on the site of the town's former main mosque, its Gothic-Renaissance vaulting and pointed arches attributed to Hernán Ruiz the Elder, Hernán Ruiz the Younger (1556), and Hernán Ruiz III. Its Renaissance altarpiece is attributed to Guillermo de Orta and Andrés de Castillejo, with paintings by Leonardo Enríquez de Navarra.

The convent, dating from 1530, was burned in 1936 and rebuilt in 1952. Its entrance courtyard ringed with chains, a neo-Baroque lateral chapel of the Immaculada Concepción, and a five-storey brick tower of 33 metres are its main features.

The town hall was built in 1680 under Carlos II. Its façade carries stone coats of arms and an 18-metre continuous balcony that connects with the parish church next door. Inside are silver ceremonial maces and works by the painter Francisco Benítez Mellado. The building faces the Plaza Mayor — locally called the Plaza de los Naranjos — which was restored in 2006 to its 1920s appearance.