The Hills of Ubeda

Apparently if you ask a Spaniard where he has been, and he doesn't want you to know, you may get the same response as the King once got from El Cid. It is said on being asked why he had turned up late for a battle, the legendary knight and hero of the Reconquest retorted that he had been "in the hills of Ubeda" - a place that we had never heard of until this week.

We drove east from Córdoba into Jaén province in the north-eastern corner of Andalucía, leaving behind the great moorish monuments that we had seen in the previous two days. Two cities here, Baeza and Ubeda have been awarded World Heritage status for their Renaissance architecture.

Mani Square, Ubeda with Parador hotel on left 

Sat on a high ridge overlooking the valley of the great river Guadilquivir which flows down through Córdoba and Sevilla the towns had important strategic value and were on the frontier between Moors and Christians for a couple of hundred years. After the Reconquest was completed with the fall of Granada, the Catholic Kings invested in the area and Ubeda became one of the four most important Andalusian cities in the new era based on it's agriculture.

The military operation of the reconquest was followed by Christian settlement where people were enticed to come south by being offered special privileges and as wealth built up great buildings were erected as the Christians imposed their own style.

Both cities are provincial backwaters now having fallen into serious decline when Spain had a bad couple of hundred years through to the early 1800s. In the period since the civil war however they have regained prosperity on the level of a busy market town and in the last 20 years the investment in the tourist industry has also helped.

Centre of Baeza

The Renaissance buildings are remarkably well preserved with the main square of the old city of Ubeda being the focal point. The Parador hotel in which we stayed is housed in one of the principal structures and is a tourist attraction in its own right.

Su pores over the map inside the Parador

Both cities are fine places to stroll around and Baeza in particular has a nice feel as the old buildings are more integrated into modern life. The views across the valley above the Cazorla national park are stunning too.  So if anyone asks us where we've been last week, we'll be saying, in the hills of Ubeda.