We leave Villanueva through the regional A-6075 until we reach the E-5 highway, which immediately takes us to the “capital” of the Countryside, which already under the old Regime was the headquarters of the Corregimiento. In its subsoil, all the historical stages have occurred since the Neolithic, but the oldest vestiges are the remains of its medieval walls. The monumental Andújar is dressed, however, for the most part Renaissance and the names of Andrés de Vandelvira and the Castillo, Francisco and Benito, are present in it.
The main interest of the visit is concentrated around two squares close to each other: Santa María and Spain. The first was where the original town hall and the Granary used to be, whose plots today occupy the House of Culture and which gives as a vestige of the time the Clock Tower, dated 1534, shows the imperial coat of arms of Carlos V next to the sundial primitive. Later another one with a modern sphere would be added. In front of it, the church of Santa María, a temple started in Gothic, as revealed by the vaults of the feet, its old chevet, which in a radical reform in the first third of the sixteenth century reversed its orientation and became a classical basilica. The work, which lasts throughout the century, registers several phases; in the first, the teachers Velasco and Tolosa appear, being appraised by Andrés de Vandelvira. Later, from 1560, Castillo "El Mozo" will take over. The temple contains pieces of great artistic value, such as the painting by El Greco, "La Oración del Huerto", in the chapel known by the name of the painter, and in which there is a valuable carving also of Christ tied to the column, from of the church of Santiago, work of the first quarter of the 16th century. Another remarkable painting is the Immaculate, from the Reinoso chapel, a work or copy of the Knight of Arpino. Also noteworthy are the three wrought iron bars, equally Renaissance.
Through Feria street we immediately come to the Plaza de España, presided over by the Town Hall, an old Comedy House built in the first quarter of the 17th century, later modified in the 18th century with a neoclassical project. Next to it, the church of San Miguel, which maintains its Gothic structure, but its main portal is one of the most beautiful examples of the first Renaissance in the province, and inside the gate and undercoat is a magnificent piece of carpentry with reliefs of Mannerist court of the late 16th century. The Sacristy, from the 17th century, stands out for its oval vault, painted with the effigies of the apostles, attributed to Antonio García Reinoso.
The rest of the parish churches all start from original Gothic projects, but with Renaissance or Baroque modifications. That of Santiago, today closed to worship, had a reform of the presbytery signed by Vandelvira. It also keeps in the Capilla del Cristo a la Columna, whose image we have seen in Santa María, one of the best examples of the delirious baroque of Cordovan origin, in the walls and vault of plasterwork made by the Primo brothers.
The church of San Bartolomé, outside the wall in the current Corredera de San Bartolomé, modified its head with elegant vaulted vaults made by Castillo “El Mozo”.
For its part, the church of Santa Marina, today dedicated to a cultural space, its entire interior was transformed in the 17th century.
The tour of the historic center of the city offers pleasant surprises. Its streets, which are quite straight and narrow to protect themselves from the heat, are often linked through small squares or “hillocks”, which function as hinges, focused by the attractive facade of a palace-house. Let's take Maestra street, parallel to the walls, behind the Plaza de España, from the Altozano de la Virgen, next to the Puerta del Sol and that leads us to the Altozano de Santa Ana, on that route the House draws our attention de los Niños de Don Gome, built on a tower in the wall, in the Mannerist Renaissance style that dominates Andújar, and a little later another corner tower-house, that of the Valdivia, of the same style and chronology. Already in Altozano de Santa Ana, the Cárdenas house-palace, today the seat of the courts, with an attached chapel, is perhaps the best example of that style that uses the padding on the covers, designed by the Castillo, and that it will remain as an identifying sign of Andujaran civil architecture until the 18th century, repeating itself throughout the city.
Ollerías street, the widest street and commercial artery, marks the limit of the walls and in it or next to it some religious foundations such as the Hospital de San Juan de Dios or the Hospital de las Monjas Trinitarias, in the neighboring street July 22, which dates from the late 16th century, and contains important works of art. On one edge of the city, too, is the Colegio de los Jesuitas, in front of Santa Marina, now a hospital, with a magnificent 18th century Baroque staircase. And a little further from the edge, the convents of Jesús and María, of the nuns of San Francisco de Paula, one of the oldest in Andújar, which boasts a beautiful Mudejar coffered ceiling in an octagonal shape, or that of the Capuchinas, current Museum of Sculpture "Antonio Orea".
Outside the city, in the heart of the Sierra Morena, the Real Basilica Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza, which has been declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest, is the great Andujas reference for its famous pilgrimage at the end of April, the most popular of all Andalusia until the most modern emergence of Rocio de Huelva. Cervantes and Lope de Vega refer to her. Later, also famous for the episode of the Civil War in 1936. The building, despite having been rebuilt after the War, preserves the structure of a nave covered with a large cannon, which was designed by Andrés de Vandelvira in 1565. At that time the city is decorated to receive the numerous brotherhoods that come from very different points of Spain.
In the vicinity of Andújar, Los Villares de Andújar, sits on a huge and very important Roman site for the production of “terra sigillata”, a ceramic that was exported outside the Peninsula. This ceramic tradition is preserved through the elaboration of artistic baroque pieces, such as its famous jugs. A good memory to take from our visit to Andújar.
It is absolutely recommended to have tapas in the bars of Andújar and not leave without trying the game meat, deer or wild boar, in which Andujar cuisine specializes.
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