Jaén grew from the Roman settlement of Auringis. It was a centre noted for its silver mines and settled by the Moors who developed the hot springs that had also been known to the Romans. Fernando III’s Christian forces captured the city in 1246 when it was part of the newly founded Nasrid kingdom of Granada. It was from Jaén, two and a half centuries later, that the final assault on Boabdil’s Granada was launched. The city then entered into a slow decline which gathered pace in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and led many of its citizens to emigrate to the colonies, evidenced by towns with the name in Peru and the Phillipines. To this day Jaen remains one of the more deprived regions of Spain. This impoverished local economy is evident to us, with a lack of investment in basic tourism which was tragic to see.
The bus station of Jaen is worth a mention. I should add that bus travel around Jaen province was pleasant, comfortable and easy. Views of rolling hills and olive field after olive field are sites which do not bore.
It is sad to see rails and stations for trams which were built in 2009 to 2011, but never opened due to lack of money. At first we wondered why people were casually standing in the middle of the road chatting, and parking on the rails as well.
We spend a couple of days knocking and entering and sneaking into churches and mansions, the opening times of which bear no relation to those mentioned in the tourist office literature. For instance, we used our charms to enter the chuch of San Andrés when filming for a documentary was taking place. We were not allowed to take photos which was fair enough. The highlight of the church is the sixteenth century Santa Capilla, which contains a fabulous altar screen depicting the Holy Family and the Tree of Jesse by Maestro Bartolomé of Jaén, creator of the reja in the Capilla Real in Granada.
Below we see the tower of La Iglesia de San Juan Bautista, one of the oldest churches of the city, dating back to the fourteenth century.
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