Linares

Linares

by Saskia Mier

Linares is the land of bullfighters and musicians, offering visitors a fascinating historical and artistic heritage. The city was heavily involved in the mining and smelting of lead, and the production of gunpowder, however, the last mine closed in 1991. In 2011, Santana Motor of Linares made national headlines when its local factory closed. Today, the city has about 56,500 inhabitants.

History

The exact origin of Linares is unclear, since there is little documentary or archaeological evidence to determine a specific starting point for the local population. Nonetheless, various estimations have been offered; the proximity of the enclave to important communication routes, together with its rich mining, aquifer and agricultural resources, mean that a settlement was firmly established by the Late Roman period, which would eventually become a village in the eighth century. One of the urban emblems of the early city was its castle, built around the eleventh century. More>

Hotels in Linares

Things to See

Casa Consistorial
This Neoclassical-style building was constructed between 1865 and 1876, the work of architect Jorge Porrúa Moreno, with modernist terracotta decorations and an imperial staircase. It has a square floor plan and a central courtyard with triple arcades structured in two sections; the lower façade consists of a large main door and a series of three windows with semicircular arches, railings on both sides and Corinthian-style pilasters. The upper body presents the same alignment in the windows as in the lower floor, but highlighting the Corinthian pilasters in the upper part. The central nucleus, built in 1879, stands out on the façade. On the main balcony is a small temple with a clock, designed by local artist Francisco Baños Martos, which plays a fragment of the melody “Estudio Sin Luz”, composed and performed by the master guitarist Andrés Segovia. (Location)

Real Casa de la Munición y la Moneda
Construction of the eighteenth-century stonework House of Ammunition and Mint, with Baroque features and beautiful Santa Bárbara tiles, was commissioned by Carlos III in order to manage the Arrayanes mine. Inside, some Gothic shipyards and a sundial have been preserved. According to records, the building produced huge amounts of ammunition and supplied Spanish armies for centuries. Currently, the building is the Headquarters of the Tax Agency. (Location)

Mercado de Abastos de Santiago
This building was designed by Francisco de Paula Casado y Gómez, municipal architect of Linares, and built during the first decade of the twentieth century. The combination of materials such as sandstone and brick results in Mudejar reminiscences and an eclectic style. (Location)

Casa de Pajares
Fernando Delgado, nicknamed “El Pajares”, ordered the construction of this house in the eighteenth century. Originally a private house, it later became the first Hospital in Linares by testamentary charitable disposition. The revolutionary group also came out of this building in 1868, to form the Town Hall and proclaim the First Republic. (Location)

Iglesia de Santa María la Mayor
The church is the oldest building in Linares. According to some historians, this Christian temple was built in the thirteenth century, on top of an old mosque. It represents the historical evolution of the city through its architectural styles: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque. Initially, a Gothic temple consisting of three naves was built in the sixteenth century, when Linares obtained the privilege of villazgo. In 1573, the most important architect of the time, Andrés de Vandelvira, was hired to extend the temple. These works were however interrupted due to a lack of funds. After the temple was destroyed during the Spanish Civil War, the sculptor José Navas-Parejo Pérez rehabilitated it with sensitive, historicist criteria. (Location)

Pósito
Built in 1757, the Pósito was originally the municipal grain store but later housed a prison and a special education centre. Today, it is on the way to becoming a tourist and museum meeting point, offering information about the town, as well as showing visitors the life and work of illustrious people from Linares such as Raphael or Carmen Linares, among others. (Location)

Palacio de los Dávalos Biedma
This emblematic Renaissance building from the sixteenth century belonged to the Dávalos Biedma family, established in Linares in the heat of the Christian conquest, and contains the principal remains of the archaeological site of Cástulo, being the site of its museum, Museo Arqueológico Monográfico de Cástulo. Located on Calle General Echagüe. (Location)

Palacio de los Zambrana
This sixteenth-century stone palace features a noble coats of arms and a Mannerist-style tower. The property is a large rectangular shape with an imposing backyard. Formerly the property of the Zambrana family, the building was abandoned by the family and subsequently used as an infantry barracks, nursing home, industrial school and various other purposes. Located on Calle Zambrana. (Location)

Plaza del Gallo
This small square features a column topped with a statue of a rooster, a nod to the old inn of the same name located nearby.

Plaza Nueva
This garden square is also known as Plaza de Alfonso XII. When the Town Hall decided to build it, mining and industrial development led to the establishment of the first British consulate in its vicinity, led by Thomas Sopwith (1872). Several members of the British community who had moved here agreed to erect a statue in 1890. It is an allegory of agriculture, by an unknown author. (Location)

Palacio de los Orozco
The Palace was built by the Orozco family in the seventeenth century. It has a magnificent masonry façade, the highlight being its beautiful lintelled access door, and above it, a balcony with germinated arches with mullion and the Orozco coat of arms on top. The Andrés Segovia Foundation was constituted by public decree on May 8, 1995; in order to promote culture, music and the study of his work, the building was turned into a museum, Casa-Museo Andrés Segovia. Declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1962. (Location)

Cripta de los Marqueses
At the express wish of Los Marqueses, in 1918, their mortal remains were transferred from Madrid to Linares, where they rest in this building. Inside, with large rooms, the Neo-Gothic chapel and the Neo-Byzantine crypt stand out. In the crypt there is a mausoleum with the recumbent figures of Los Marqueses, made in marble and bronze by Lorenzo Coullaut Valera. This work earned the artist the second prize at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. Located in Paseo de los Marqueses de Linares. (Location)

Hospital San Juan de Dios
Dating from the seventeenth century, this building was the work of architect Eufrasio López Rojas. The paintings that decorate the main vault represent various scenes from the life of San Francisco de Asís and are the work of A. Pueyo. José Yanguas Messía donated a Baroque altarpiece with Solomonic columns, the central motif of which is the mystical embrace of San Francisco and Jesus Crucified, a relief version of Murillo’s painting. The work is by Navas-Parejo. In the Sagrario chapel you can see works by Félix Granda. Today, the building houses the local Law Courts. Located on Calle Cánovas del Castillo Ponton. (Location)

Iglesia de San Francisco de Asís
The church’s façade was completed in 1763. The artistic richness of this church is complemented by beautiful carvings of different brotherhoods of Holy Week in Linares. Located in Plaza San Francisco. (Location)

Palacio de Telecomunicaciones
What was once the cloister of the Convent of the Franciscan Brothers is today the Post and Telegraph building. Adapted to suit its new function, the classical façade has acquired modernist nuances such as two large lion heads, which perform the function of a mailbox. Inside, the beautiful stained glass windows are a highlight, surrounding the entire central patio. Located in Plaza San Francisco. (Location)

Teatro Cervantes
The Cervantes de Linares Theatre has its origins in the San Ildefonso Theatre, built in 1864 by Ildefonso Sánchez y Cózar, in the expansion zone of the city. It was a rectangular building with a facade facing two parallel streets and a French theatre typology, with a horseshoe-shaped room and a spacious stage. It was reformed in 1930 to improve its safety and hygiene conditions, and in 1952 it became a cinema, closing its doors in the 1980s. In 1993, the Town Hall bought the theatre for 80 million pesetas. Decades later, works aimed at recovering the historical memory of the building were undertaken, costing approximately 4.1 million euros. (Location)

Bullring and Santa Margarita gardens
The initiative of Luis María Granados to provide the city with the bullfighting arena it deserved finally bore fruit between 1866 and 1867. The emblematic arena, with a capacity for 9,392 people, was consolidated in 1949 with its whitewashed facade and the albero sand which is preserved to this day. The arena with the largest ring in Spain was drastically reduced in the 1970s by the refusal of the right-hander Manuel Guerra Guerrita to carry out any task in the arena of the Linares square. The Santa Margarita bullring is known, among other things, because the Cordovan bullfighter, Manolete, died there on the afternoon of August 28, 1947. (Location)

Santuario de la Virgen de Linarejos
After various modifications and extensions, the building that can be seen today dates from the eighteenth century. Its interior is decorated with beautiful paintings by Linares-born artist Francisco Baños, and sculptures by the Catalan master Francisco Carulla Serra. It preserves the only elliptical dome in the city, interesting forges and fourteenth-century frescoes. Located on Paseo Virgen de Linarejos. (Location)

Estación de Madrid
Due to the need to transport lead extracted from the city’s mines, the Estación de Madrid (Madrid Railway Station) was built, located on one of the sides of Paseo de Linarejos. The red brick and stone façade cleverly represents an inverted railway carriage. This building has Mudejar reminiscences with modernist innovations, with two floors and a central façade.

Banco Español de Crédito
This sandstone building recalls the first branch of the Banco Español de Crédito (Banesto), erected in 1908 on Calle Calatrava, very close to its current location. Located in the Plaza de la Constitución.

Banco de España
The local branch of the Bank of Spain was constructed due to the great importance that the mining industry acquired in the town and the wealth it gathered. The restored building is today the seat of the House of Culture, where the Municipal Archives and Library are located. Located on Calle Corredera de San Marcos Alta.

Museums

Museo Arqueológico Monográfico de Cástulo
The rooms of this museum present the history of the ancient Ibero-Roman city from  Prehistory until well into the Middle Ages. The continuous excavations that are being carried out at the site mean that the collection is undergoing constant expansion. Its genesis as a museum is due to the enterprising initiative of Rafael Contreras de la Paz, concerned about the constant looting that the ancient city of Cástulo was suffering. Located on Calle General Echagüe. (Location)

Casa-Museo Andrés Segovia
Visitors can get closer to Andrés Segovia international guitarist and composer through personal memories, furniture, as well as intimate documents linked to the artist: sheet music, press clippings, concert programs, photographs and more. Inside, a beautiful central courtyard with a square floor plan and stone columns worked in Tuscan style allows access to the different rooms, the old oil cellar (today the crypt where the remains of Andrés Segovia rest) and the beautiful patio. (Location)

Museo Hospital de Los Marqueses
This superb neo-Gothic and historicist building is today a museum that allows us to discover, in situ, a hospital specialising in illnesses related to the mining profession. Located within the Cripta de los Marqueses on Paseo de los Marqueses de Linares. (Location)

Centro de Interpretación del Paisaje Minero
Located in the old loading dock of the Madrid Station, the Interpretation Centre has a permanent mining exhibition, where visitors can learn about mineral extraction processes through its four rooms of exhibits. In Room I, you can find the historical background, details of the first mining settlers as well as the main concessions, the formations of the seams and their form of exploitation. Room II contemplates the constant process of transformation of the city as well as the economic boom and the splendor of an era. Room III examines working practices in the mines, as well as all the mechanisms used in the extraction of minerals and the technological advances of the time. (Location)

Taberno-Museo “Lagartijo”
The monographic restaurant-museum of bullfighting in Linares opened in March 1980 and owes its name to the right-handed Rafael Molina Lagartijo, a nineteenth-century bullfighter from Córdoba. It is located in a building dating from 1795 which preserves the original well and patio of the time. There is an exhibition of topics related to the bullfighting world with a particular collection of a series of memories of the fatal capture of Manolete in the bullring of Linares in August 1947. The restaurant offers excellent traditional cuisine in a tourist-cultural environment decorated with posters, photographs and bullfighting objects. In it, culture, tourism and gastronomy go hand in hand in a typical Andalusian atmosphere. Located on Calle Ventanas. (Location)

ART GALLERIES

Galería de Arte Cristóbal Bejarano
Dedicated to promoting young artists, this gallery has a series of exhibitions of contemporary art. Located on Calle Marqués de Linares.

Galería Eduma.
Exhibitions of modern art take place at Galería Eduma. (Location)

Things to see outside the town

Cojunto Arqueológico de Castulo
An Archaeological site called Castulo is located about seven kilometers from the town of Linares.  It is one of the most important in Europe and covers a wide chronology  from the Neolithic to the time of the Ibero-Roman. It was here that that the Carthaginian General Hannibal married the local Iberian princess Himilce on the eve of the Second Punic War.

Castillo de Tobaruela
Tobaruela Castle is located on the road that links Linares with Jabalquinto. Built in the fifteenth century on possibly other Muslim origin, it has a beautiful  keep in the form of a clover leaf.

El Piélago
El Piélago Natural Monument consists of a Roman bridge, the Puente de Vadollano, which spans the Guarrizas river and its granite rock formations. The river has two impressive waterfalls. More >

Gastronomy

To taste the traditional delicacies of the cuisine of Linares one must try dishes such as pipirrana minero, potatoes with peppers, called perolo and beans with ham. Desserts include turcas, el chachepol and himilces.

Festivals

Popular festivals in Linares are Real Feria y Fiestas de San Agustín, Fiestas Iberorromanas de Cástulo, Fiestas en honor a la Virgen de Linarejos, Feria de San Augustine and Linares International Chess Tournament. More >

Tourist office

The tourist office of Linares is located in the Centro de Interpretación del Paisaje Minero. More >

Bus Service

There are bus services from Linares to Jaén, Andújar, Baeza, Bailén, Úbeda, Santa Elena, Baños de la Encina, Jabalquinto, La Carolina, Sorihuela and Vilches, using the companies, Samar, ALSA and Castillo. More >

There are also bus services to Córdoba city, Granada city, Sevilla, Madrid, Barcelona, Pamplona, Valencia, Málaga and Alicante.

Neighbouring Places

The neighbouring villages to Linares are Bailén, Úbeda and Jabalquinto.