1 The squares

From Santa Maria and Spain

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The first itinerary starts at the Tourist Office, at the foot of the Clock Tower. From its viewpoint, you can enjoy a magnificent panoramic view of the city, which allows you to see two of the most significant elements of the Andujar of the XV and XVI centuries: on one side, the tower of the parish of St. Michael the Archangel (Spain Square) and, on the other, the tower of the parish of St. Bartholomew, in the suburb of its name. It continues in the Santa Maria Square, the nerve center of the city between the thirteenth and seventeenth centuries. In it, the visitor can still find the following elements: the cover of the old Cabildo, from the 15th century, built in the style of the Catholic Monarchs; the old corn exchange, current House of Culture; the Parish Church of Old St. Mary, of Gothic / Renaissance style, 1467-1636, and the emblematic Clock Tower which was part of the old Royal Prison.

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Through the street of the Fair, you get to the Spain Square, popularly known as "Plaza del Mercado" (Market Square) because it is its origin since the Muslim era. Currently, in the square we find four elements of remarkable relevance. The first of these is the parish church of St. Michael the Archangel, in Gothic style with Renaissance touches. The second, the City Hall, former comedy theater built in the first third of the seventeenth century, with the exception of its central body of Neoclassical style; the third, the group of houses built by the National Service of Devastated Regions and Repairs in the decade of the forties of the last century, work of the architect Francisco Prieto Moreno; and the fourth and last of them, the square of Blessed Marco Criado, where you can see the sculpture of this illustrious andujareño, died in 1569 in La Peza, during the War of the Alpujarras, and the beautiful Baroque fountain.

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2 Manor Houses and Palaces

Maestra-altozano street of Monseñor Estepa

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In the second itinerary, complementary to the previous one, it is proposed to cover the intramural city on its southern flank, from east to west, that is, from the Puerta del Sol to the Puerta del Alcazar -it is, in both cases, medieval doors that do not exist today. From the Puerta del Sol, you can contemplate the hillock of the Virgen de la consolación, in whose image travelers used to be entrusted to request protection in the dangerous path of the Court. A few meters away from it, there is the Cardenas-Valdivia manor house, popularly known as Palace of the children of Don Gome, from the end of the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century, so it can fit into the Mannerist style. At the moment, it is soothes of the Archaeological Museum Professor Sotomayor and the House of the Potter. Very close to it is the Conservatory building, where you can see a charming Mudejar-style patio. A little further on, in the same Maestra street, is the manor house of Jose Argote Serrano, from the second half of the 18th century. Current headquarters of the College of Adults Pedro de Escabias, this building will mean a renewal in the conception of facade in the town and will serve as a model for the future houses of the leaders of Andujar.

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The tour continues with the Torre de los Cardenas-Valdivia. In this case, we are facing the ancestral home of Don Diomedes de Valdivia and Mrs. Guiomar Palomino, founders of the primogeniture of La Quinteria (September 11, 1559). Of the group that once was, only its lookout tower, raised in the days of Don Cristobal de Cardenas Lucena and Mrs. Teresa de Valdivia, whose lineages are represented in the shields that flank its balcony, persists.

 

 

 

Through Alferez Moreno street - old Cepeda street - we reach the manor house of the Sirieres de Mieres, located on the Serrano Plato hill, formerly known as the Altozano de St. Peter, an advocation with which the door holder was referred to southern of the Parish Church of Old St. Mary. The building, which is very altered both in its facade and its planimetry, maintains its cover of the mid-eighteenth century, aesthetically framed in the Baroque. Next to it, we find the chapel of the Christ of the Agony, of Neo-Gothic style, built as a mortuary chapel by Don Rafael Perez de Vargas, Count of La Quinteria, between 1923 and 1925.

 

 

 

Then, from Serrano Plato square, we access the Monseñor Estepa hill, which used to be St. Ana's hillock, where you can see two buildings that are frankly significant: on one side, the Cardenas palace and, on the other, the manor house of Don Pedro de Cardenas Palomino and Mrs. Leonor Jurado, known as "Los segundos de Cardenas" (The second of Cardenas) for being Don Pedro the second of the ten children of Pedro de Cardenas Palomino (and not the firstborn). In the decade of the nineties, the facade of the former palace of the Perez de Vargas y Gormaz was built on its eastern flank, claiming for itself all the prominence of this urban space. This facade constructed in sandstone presents / displays two significant elements: the padding and the rings decorated with heads covered with hats of three tips, that allude to the fidelity of their dwellers, the marquises of Contadero, - to the monarch Carlos III during the events of the riot of Esquilache.

 

 

 

The palace of the Cardenas, current palace of Justice, will be the headquarters of the counts of the Quinteria, Don Manuel Francisco de Cardenas Palomino and Mrs. Eugenia de Miranda Gamboa. Its beautiful doorway of 1600 and the chapel of St. Ana, attached to the palace are due to the tracist and master stonemason Bernabé de Lorca.

 

 

 

The hillock meets the old street of the fortress where the visitor can contemplate the house of the Quero and part of the old medieval wall where the tower of the Fuente Sorda is located.

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3 Extramurals

Suburb of St. Bartholomew – Supply Plaza

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The third route, parish of St. Bartholomew – Supply Plaza, is located outside the walls and allows us to contemplate some of the most notable examples of regional architecture in the city. These are comfortable homes built by the bourgeoisie in the first third of the last century and among which the projects of Aníbal González stand out: Aldehuela house (San Bartolomé Slide) and Espejo House (San Francisco street).

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The St. Bartholomew parish church is located in the St. Bartholomew slum, built in the second and third third of the 15th century in Gothic style with some Renaissance touches resulting from the intervention of Francisco de Castillo and his brother Benito in the main chapel, first section of the temple and its current tower completed in the days of Cardinal Baltasar Moscoso Sandoval, Bishop of Jaen.

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The San Bartolome slide concludes in the Old square or Ancient square, the commercial heart of the city since the late Middle Ages. It overlooked the Big and Little Arch of the wall and the old castle of the city. Through San Francisco street, commercial artery of the city in Andújar in the last century, it takes us to Supply Plaza.

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The current Supply Plaza is built in the 1940s and it is a project by the architect Pedro Rivas. It is located on land belonging to the old convent of St. Francisco and the old "Industrial Center of the city of Andujar" opened in July 1874. The visitor will be surprised by its circular floor -there was a bullring- and the variety and quality of the products sold there.

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In Ollerias street, two interesting elements can be visited: the hermitage of the Virgen de la Cabeza in neo-gothic style and the old convent of San Juan de Dios, current home of the Mothers of St. Jose de la Montaña, where its beautiful baroque altarpiece and the Virgen de Las Angustias that houses.

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In its proximity is the Constitution Square that takes us to the aforementioned Spain Square.

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Association of Friends of the Patrimony of Andujar