Cazalla de la Sierra

Cazalla de la Sierra grew around mineral deposits that drew settlers over many centuries. Its most dramatic royal moment came when Felipe V, Fernando VI and Carlos III — three kings of Spain — were present in the town simultaneously, accompanied by the entire Royal Court, a visit that reportedly helped ease Felipe V through his recurring bouts of depression and thoughts of abdication. In 1916, King Alfonso XIII formally granted Cazalla the title of city.

The parish church is one of the most architecturally layered buildings in the area. It began as a Mudéjar structure and was still being built and decorated well into later centuries, accumulating Renaissance and Baroque elements along the way. The Renaissance project, started in 1538, is associated with Diego de Riaño, though some historians point out that Riaño died four years before work began and suggest the design may be the work of Diego de Siloé or an early project by Andrés de Vandelvira — parallels with Vandelvira's church at the former Convent of Santo Domingo in La Guardia de Jaén are often cited. The master builder Pedro Francisco López is the only documented name attached to the construction. One curious footnote: the church fell exactly one interior column short of qualifying as a cathedral. Several penitential brotherhoods are based here, including La Esperanza, considered the most important of Cazalla's Holy Week, and the Santo Entierro. The Nazareno brotherhood holds its canonical seat in the nearby Convent of Madre de Dios.

Five kilometres outside town, the Cartuja de Cazalla is a substantial monastic complex that originated in the late medieval period and represents the architectural ambitions of the Carthusian Order. Although its life as a Carthusian house has ended, the surviving fabric gives a clear sense of its former scale and importance.

Within the town itself, the religious and civic heritage is concentrated in a relatively small area. The Convent of Madre de Dios has a Renaissance cloister. The Convent of San Francisco survives partly as the covered market (plaza de abastos), with the original cloister now serving as its courtyard. The Monastery of Santa Clara now functions as a public secondary school, and the Convent of San Agustín is today the town hall. The Church and Palace of San Benito, in Gothic-Mudéjar style, has a triangular tower — one of only a handful of that form in Spain — and is now part of the Palacio de San Benito hotel. Two ermitas preserve important religious images: the Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Carmen houses the Virgin of Carmen, and the Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Monte is home to the town's patron, the Virgen del Monte. A stretch of the wall from the old castle also remains.