Alcalá la Real

Alcalá la Real sits at a strategic crossroads in southern Spain, linking the Guadalquivir valley with the fertile plains of Granada through the rivers Guadajoz, Frailes, and Velillos. That geography shaped the town's entire history. Human settlement in the area goes back to the Palaeolithic, with traces continuing through the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, and Bronze Age.

The first signs of occupation on the hill of La Mota, the high ground that would define the town, date from Roman times, and one scholar, A. U. Stylow, identifies Alcalá la Real with the Roman place name Sucaelo.

The Arab conquest of 713 gave the settlement its modern name. It was called Qal'at Astalīr at first, later Qal'at Yahsub, and later still Qal'at Banī Sa'īd, meaning "fortress of the Banu Sa'id family", shortened to Al-Qal'a, "the fortress," which became Alcalá. During the reign of Alhakén II (961–976), a network of watchtowers was built across the territory; eleven of the original fifteen still stand today, a mix of Muslim and later Christian construction, all oriented around La Mota as the central stronghold.

After the Caliphate broke into the Taifa kingdoms, Alcalá became a stronghold of the Zirid kingdom, changing hands between the rulers of Seville and Granada in 1075. In 1125, Alfonso I of Aragon passed through the area, freeing Mozarab Christian communities living under Almoravid rule; those who did not flee north suffered reprisals, many deported to Morocco. Around 1140 the Banu Sa'id family, scholars and historians by reputation, made La Mota one of the most significant fortresses in Al-Ándalus.

They refused submission to the Almohad dynasty, and their governor Abd al-Malik ben Said was imprisoned as a result, though later pardoned and released. During the Almohad period, the Jewish community of Alcalá refused conversion to Islam, were punished, and the survivors moved northward.

The hilltop of La Mota holds the town's most important monuments, grouped tightly together above the modern city in the plain below. The Iglesia Mayor Abacial began as a Gothic structure but was substantially rebuilt during the Renaissance. Work started in the second quarter of the sixteenth century to designs by Martín de Bolívar, who kept the Gothic star-vaulted structure while covering it with Plateresque decoration.

The funerary chapels were conceived as monumental Plateresque doorways, as were the arches leading to the Baptistry. Later in the sixteenth century, Ambrosio de Vico transformed much of the rest of the building; Luis González and Fray Cristóbal de San José then raised the east end as a great triumphal arch divided into three equal arches, while Ginés Martínez de Aranda built the sacristy. Of the original Gothic church, only the chapel of Deán Cherinos survives intact.

The Baptismal Chapel is particularly fine, a double Renaissance doorway and a coffered vault that some scholars attribute to the Italian architect Jacobo Florentino. Outside, the tower was built deliberately taller than the fortress beside it, a visual statement of Christian victory. French troops set fire to the church during their retreat from the town in 1810, ending its active use.

The Alcazaba is a triangular fortified enclosure with three towers: the Torre del Homenaje (the tallest, at around 20 metres, with views south to Sierra Nevada), the Torre de la Campana, and the Torre Mocha. The walls enclosing the site form one of the most extensive fortified perimeters in Andalucía, punctuated by towers and gateways, of which the Torre de la Cárcel and the Puerta de la Imagen are the most imposing. Restoration work is ongoing on both the walls and the main buildings.

The Abbot's Palace on the hill was begun in 1781 by Esteban Lorenzo Mendoza y Gatica, built in a Neoclassical style with French and Italian influence around an interior courtyard with three open galleries. It now houses the town's museum and interpretation centre, a music conservatory, and a tourist information office.

Alcalá la Real is roughly 60 km north-west of Granada via the N-432, 60 km south of Jaén via the A-6050, and around 100 km south-east of Córdoba via the N-432.