Begíjar

Human presence around Begíjar goes back to the Neolithic and Copper Age, around the third millennium BC, with settlement traces at Las Majadillas. Later Bronze Age remains survive at Terrera del Goterón, and an Iberian fortification near the town's railway station yielded characteristic painted pottery. The Romans worked the land intensively through farming estates — among them Piedra Hincada, Vega del Obispo, Las Delicias and Casa del Amor Hermoso.

Under Islamic rule the town was known as Buxexat, later Bexijar. Fernando III took it around 1226, at the same time as nearby Baeza, and the centuries that followed were contentious. The town became a prize fought over by the council of Baeza and the bishops of Jaén, each wanting the income from its fertile land. Fernando III first attached it to Baeza as royal territory, then ceded parts to the Order of Calatrava — confirmed by Alfonso X in 1254 — and other portions to the bishopric of Toledo. In 1249 he transferred the whole settlement to the bishopric of Jaén. Alfonso XI reversed this in 1341, taking Begíjar from a local lord and returning it to Baeza's council.

The conflict continued into the 15th century. Bishop Rodrigo de Narváez seized the castle and folded it into diocesan holdings over Baeza's objections, and the town was drawn into broader struggles between the nobility and Enrique IV. The Catholic Monarchs finally settled the matter in 1477, confirming ownership to the bishop. Bishops held the castle and later the Episcopal Palace — still standing today — as a principal residence for centuries.

Independence came slowly. The municipal council voted in October 1762 to seek a royal charter separating Begíjar from Baeza, but Baeza obstructed the process for years. To cover the costs, the council borrowed 11,000 ducats from the cathedral of Córdoba at three percent annual interest. Carlos III granted the town the title of Villa de Bexijar on 24 October 1779. The price was 3,000 ducats, or 66,166 reales and 16 maravedíes, calculated at 7,500 maravedíes per household. At that point the town had around 400 households. It also maintained a hospital for poor travellers dedicated to San Juan Jerónimo, and three hermitages — San Marcos, San Sebastián, and Nuestra Señora del Campillo.

The parish church of Santiago Apóstol, built between the 15th and 16th centuries, is the place to start. Its late-Plateresque doorway is richly carved with grotesques, medallions of Saints Peter and Paul, and episcopal shields, topped by a relief of Santiago Matamoros. Inside, a broad central nave is flanked by side chapels, and a Baroque camarín from the 18th century houses a venerated image of Christ — the Santísimo Cristo de la Vera Cruz — lit by a large window and opening onto the nave through a rounded arch.

The castle's keep, known as the Torre del Homenaje, is the town's defining landmark. Its origins are Visigothic, reworked successively by Moorish and Christian builders. Two remarkable vaulted spaces survive: an octagonal half-dome of brick on the first floor, and above it a spectacular pointed vault with eight ribs, both resting on stone corbels. A small arcaded sentry box is preserved inside.

The town hall was built between 1561 and 1576 by Ginés Martínez de Aranda. Only the original doorway remains — a semicircular arch between columns — with the names of the council members who commissioned it inscribed on the frieze. The adjacent jail and clock tower were built at the same time.

Down at the Guadalquivir, the Bishop's Bridge was built at the expense of Bishop Alonso Suárez de la Fuente del Sauce, begun in 1508. One side carries a small chapel dedicated to the Virgin, with an inscription recording that the crossing is free to all. Forty days of indulgence were promised to those who crossed and said an Ave María.

The Episcopal Palace, a sober Renaissance building declared a cultural monument in 1986, was one of the bishops of Jaén's main residences and is considered among the earliest examples of Hispanic Renaissance architecture on the peninsula. L-shaped, with a dressed-stone façade, its doorway is topped by the heraldic shield of Bishop Fray Benito Marín. The writer Juan Eslava Galán references the palace in his novel En Busca del Unicornio.

On the street that bears her name, close to the parish church, stands the birthplace of Patrocinio de Biedma y la Moneda, a 19th-century writer, poet, and journalist regarded as the first feminist voice from Jaén and one of the earliest in Andalucía to speak publicly against rural machismo. A local cultural association is currently working to establish a house museum in her memory.

The town's oldest surviving stone cross appears in records from 1554, though its current form dates to 1653, made by mason Alonso García Cano for a cost of 111 reales. Nearby, the Calle Mesones is a centuries-old street that once lined with inns and lodging houses serving travellers at a major road junction.