Montoro

Human settlement at Montoro goes back at least 4,500 to 5,000 years, evidenced by archaeological finds at the Iberian site of Llanete de los Moros — architectural remains and funerary objects now held in the Provincial Archaeological Museum in Córdoba. There is speculation, unproven, that Greek colonisers founded an earlier settlement here called Aypora or Eipora.

The Roman city of Epora signed a treaty with the Roman Republic around 206 BC, during the Second Punic War, and became one of the few federated cities of the province of Baetica. It sat on the Via Augusta and appears in both the Antonine Itinerary and the Apollinaris Vessels.

The town's name derives from the Visigothic settlers who established themselves on the nearby hill — Monte Gothorum, "hill of the Goths," which became Muntûr in Arabic texts and eventually Montoro. Fernando III of Castile conquered the town on 24 August 1238 or 1240 — sources differ — the feast of Saint Bartholomew, who became the town's patron saint.

During the Napoleonic invasion, Montoro's residents lured French troops in and ambushed them repeatedly, making it the only point in Spain the French left unconquered behind their lines. The town was awarded the title "Most Noble, Loyal and Patriotic City of Montoro," though the cost in lives was severe and the population did not recover to its 1808 level until around 1840. The railway arrived in 1866 with the Manzanares–Córdoba line. From the 20th century onward, olive cultivation came to dominate the local economy.

Montoro's old quarter is a protected heritage area (listed in the national gazette in 1969). Its main church, San Bartolomé Apóstol, dates from the late medieval period in Gothic-Mudéjar style with a Neoclassical tower, and is individually listed as a heritage monument. The church of Santa María de la Mota now houses the municipal museum, which covers archaeology, mineralogy, and fossils.

The Casa de las Tercias, a listed 16th-century building that once stored olive oil and wine harvests, is now a Museum of Olive Oil. Nearby, the Museum of the painter Rodríguez Luna occupies a separate space. A Museum of Holy Week is also present in the town.

The medieval bridge over the Guadalquivir, built across several centuries, leads to a natural monument — the Meandro de Montoro, a pronounced river meander. From the Mirador del Imperio Romano you can look out over this meander and the town's hanging houses.

Other surviving monuments include the Torre del Castillo de Villaverde (a watchtower, listed 1985), the Arco de la Torre Mocha and stretches of the old walls, the Hospital de Jesús Nazareno with its chapel and courtyard, and the baroque church of El Carmen. The Barrio del Retamar quarter contains the hermitage of Santa Ana and a scattering of wayside crosses. Sections of the Roman Via Augusta also pass through the municipality.