Ubeda: arrival

We enjoy the bus ride from Granada into Jaén Province and arrive in Ubeda early enough for an evening paseo.  The old town is a world heritage site, containing many churches and palaces dating back to the renaissance.  Little is known of Úbeda’s Roman beginnings as the town of Betula, and it was only in the Moorish period that Obdah, as it became, grew into a prosperous and important centre with walls and a castle. The town fell to Fernando III (El Santo) in 1234. As happened in Baeza, numerous noble families were then established by the king and built their mansions in the town. 

In common with Baeza, it was in the sixteenth century, as a producer of textiles traded across Europe, that Úbeda’s fortunes reached their zenith and members of the same noble families came to hold prominent positions in the imperial Spanish court.

Andrés de Vandelvira was the principal architect of the renaissance buildings in Ubeda.  The town declined in the seventeenth century as sharply as it had flourished in the sixteenth, which explains its architectural unity and lack of any significant Baroque architecture. Today, Úbeda is a moderately prosperous provincial town. 

Above is Puerta de Losal, one of the best preserved entrances to the medieval town.  It is mudejar in style thus dating to the renaissance.  Some parts of the city wall date back to the 10th century and are Moorish.

Below is the old ayuntamiento now occupied by the Conservatorio de Música.