In the Old Kingdom of Jaén, the Loma Region extends like a sea of olives under the clear Andalucian sky.

At a distance, the Cazorla Sierras, Segura, and the villas to the East, and the Sierra Mágina to the South, make their incomparable mark on history.

In the Loma Region of the ninth century, Úbeda and Baeza were founded as cities.

Founded by Abderraman II, Úbeda rose as Madinat Ubbadat Al-Arab (the Arabic Úbeda), while Baeza, the Muslim Bayyasa, already existed as a small Roman nucleus: Vivatia or Biatia.

However, the true golden age for the cities is without a doubt the Renaissance.

Úbeda and Baeza are the humanist centers of excellence in sixteenth-century Spain.

Some of the greatest artists of the time such as Andrés de Vandelvira, Diego de Siloé, Luis de Vega, Juan Bautista Villalpando, Esteban Jamete, Ginés Martínez de Aranda would come to the two cities.

In the two cities, one can see the urban solutions proposed by Italian Renaissance Treatises of the Quatrrocento, adapted to the sociopolitical reality of sixteenth-century Spain, with an innovative aspect that would later be projected throughout Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.

Some of the most important stonemasons of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries came to the two cities and close centers, even though the inarguable master of the Jaén Renaissance was Andrés de Vandelvira. His architecture, that later others would follow, was characterized by the deliberate adoption of classical features that reinterpreted the Italian models; the use of traditional stonecutting techniques and inclusion of Islamic elements.

In the buildings of Úbeda and Baeza, doubled windows and slender columns from the Nazarene tradition can be seen along with vaulting that extended like the language of classicism through Spain and all of Latin America.

The Renaissance architecture began to develop in Úbeda and Baeza starting in the beginning years of the sixteenth century. In that moment, a style known as plateresco was principally used in residential buildings and demonstrated a large influence from earlier styles with profuse and luxurious decoration that is more reminiscent of metalwork than of architecture. Later, this feature would begin to be experimented with in portals and chapels in temples.

Between 1550 and 1575, a flowering in both private and public civil architecture would bloom as much in Úbeda as in Baeza. Ginés Martínez de Aranda, Francisco del Castillo y Juan Bautista Villalpando were other figures from this period.

The cultural atmosphere that existed, promoted by the University of Baeza, would also give rise to literary works about architecture like that of Villalpando.

The material developed in this webpage demonstrates a vision of the two cities circa 1612 thanks to the application of historic knowledge to new technologies.

The cities that we see today come from long histories of victors and those defeated, of things that remained the same and others that were adapted. The Roman cities were taken over by the Visigoths and the Visigoths by the Muslims. The Christians established themselves over the Islamic medinas and in each one there were some alterations. The lords changed but the people remained the same and merely changed their religion and their houses. However, they maintained their customs and their small plots of land.

The cities are made by the people who inhabit them and their houses build the streets and plazas, more so than the grand religious buildings and palaces that can only be inserted into the residential plan. Ruins from former eras are sometimes hidden among the walls of these houses, while others only reveal the invisible footprint of what used to occupy the space.

Without houses or living spaces, there is no city. Because of this, it is essential to conserve this precious part of our patrimony.

We want to offer you an image of Úbeda and Baeza in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, full of distinguished religious and civil construction, but, above all, full of houses, stores, balconies, colonnades that, like today, make the city.


Conjuntos monumentales renacentistas de Úbeda y Baeza. Documentación para la Declaración de Patrimonio Mundial.

Molina Hipólito J. Baeza Histórica y Monumental. Ed. Publicaciones del Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Córdoba. Córdoba, 1982.

Moreno Mendoza, A. Úbeda. Ed. Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Úbeda. Sevilla, 1985.