Human presence in this area dates back to the Bronze Age, evident from a series of remains discovered in the Sierra de Cabra. During the Iberian era, the region formed part of a commercial route linking Granada with the Guadalquivir Valley. In the Hispano-Muslim period, a citadel was erected on the Cerro de San Juan. Some historians suggest it could be the Bagtawira fortress, belonging to a significant family that rebelled against the Umayyads at the close of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth century.