Andújar

The oldest traces around Andújar go back to the Palaeolithic Acheulean culture, but settlement intensified in the Neolithic and early Bronze Age as agriculture took hold in the fertile river plain and mining developed in the Sierra Morena. The Iberian people known as the Oretani established the ancient city of Isturgi here — today's district of Los Villares de Andújar — later coming into contact with Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians, and neighbouring Iberian towns. Under Roman rule it became the Municipium Isturgi Triumphale, part first of Hispania Ulterior and then of Baetica, and it flourished as a major producer of terra sigillata, the prestige Roman pottery of the early imperial period.

The city survived into the Visigothic era as Sturgi before the name Isturgi disappeared with the arrival of Islam in 711. The current town centre grew from a nearby site, and the name Andújar appears for the first time during the emirate of Mohamed I in 853. The Almohads fortified the town in the twelfth century.

In 1225 Fernando III of Castile received its castle, and Andújar became a mustering point for Christian armies campaigning south of the Sierra Morena.

The old town holds several churches worth seeking out, above all Santa María la Mayor, which contains El Greco's painting *La Oración en el Huerto* (The Agony in the Garden). Other churches include San Bartolomé, Santa Marina, Santiago Apóstol, San Miguel, and La Divina Pastora. The town also has a Royal Sanctuary dedicated to the Virgen de la Cabeza, a chapel of the Cristo de la Agonía, and several former convents — among them the Convento de la Inmaculada Concepción and the former Convento de San Francisco.

Andújar sits on the Autovía de Andalucía; exit 321 brings you directly into town. It is also reachable by train and by bus lines running from Jaén, Córdoba, Madrid, and other cities.