Baños de la Encina

By the mid-19th century Baños de la Encina had a recorded population of around 1,770 people, and the town received an entry in Pascual Madoz's monumental geographical and statistical dictionary of Spain and its overseas territories. In 2021 it was admitted to the association Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España, the national register of Spain's most beautiful towns.

Several buildings and sites in Baños de la Encina are listed in the General Catalogue of Andalusian Historical Heritage. The most significant is the Castillo de Burgalimar, the Moorish castle that dominates the town. The Church of San Mateo holds a painting in its Sagrario that is attributed to Murillo.

Two hermitages stand out in the town itself. The Ermita del Cristo del Llano contains a notable rococó camarín, the ornate alcove-chamber behind the altar. The ruined Ermita de Santa María del Cueto has largely disappeared, but excavations carried out during remodelling work around the Burgalimar castle uncovered part of a wall and part of a small underground cistern that once sat beneath it.

Outside town, among the olive groves, stands the Ermita de la Virgen de la Encina, built on the spot where, according to local tradition, the Virgin appeared to a farmer beside an evergreen oak. A romería pilgrimage to this shrine takes place on the second Sunday of May. About a kilometre before it, on the same road, is the smaller Ermita de Jesús del Camino, which draws its own short pilgrimage on the first Sunday of May.

On the upper part of town stands an old windmill, built in dressed stone and restored in recent years. It was fitted with sails for ornamental purposes and now houses a small museum inside.

Further out, the Bronze Age settlement of Peñalosa has been the subject of extensive academic study, carried out by researchers from the University of Granada with funding from the Junta de Andalucía.

Baños de la Encina rises from the southern edge of Sierra Morena above the Rumblar reservoir, crowned by the Burgalimar, the Moorish castle that still dominates the skyline. For centuries it stood on the frontier between Christian and Muslim Spain, and the old centre of stone manor houses keeps that sober, fortified character.

The surprise is inside the Ermita del Cristo del Llano, whose baroque camarín is a riot of painted plasterwork, one of the most striking interiors in the province of Jaén. The history goes much deeper than the castle: nearby Peñalosa is one of the key Bronze Age settlements of the Argaric culture, and the surrounding Sierra de Andújar natural park is home to the Iberian lynx.

Baños de la Encina joined Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España in 2021. The label is awarded by a private association, not the state: a village applies and is audited against around 40 criteria, from how its historic buildings are conserved to the upkeep of its streets, and members are reviewed and can lose it. Baños de la Encina is one of 19 members in Andalucía, out of 126 in Spain. See all heritage towns in Andalucía.