Jaén is undoubtedly the great unknown of Spain, but there is no doubt that it is a place full of charm, with a great heritage and steeped in history. And it is precisely because of its history that Jaén has long been known as the Holy Kingdom of Jaén. On this tour, we will try to reveal why.

We will start our free tour in the Plaza de Santa María, right in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption, where the architect Andrés de Vandelvira made this temple an absolute Renaissance architectural reference point in the world, serving as a model for the construction of other Christian temples elsewhere.

Next, we will visit the Palacio del Condestable Iranzo, a palace of exquisite Mudejar taste where its former owner, the Constable Miguel Lucas de Iranzo, turned it into a court where he entertained his most distinguished guests with different events such as concerts and plays. We will talk about the different intrigues and conspiracies hatched against him that led to a fatal outcome.

Once we are back on the street, we will head to the Arch of San Lorenzo, a surviving vestige of the old Church of San Lorenzo where the body of Ferdinand IV “The Impeached” was laid in state. We will recount the storey that led the young monarch to die in the capital as a result of a particular curse.

A few metres from the Arch of San Lorenzo, we will stop right in front of the Santiago Air Raid Shelter and recount how this fratricidal conflict affected the capital of the Holy Kingdom. We will then take a walk to the Palace of the Lord of Villardompardo, which currently houses two museums: the International Museum of Naïf Art and the Museum of Popular Arts and Customs. But the most important treasure is the Arab Baths of “El Niño,” one of the five Arab baths that existed in medieval Jaén and considered today to be the largest in Spain, with a total area of 450 m2.

A few metres from the Arab Baths, we will find the Convent of Santo Domingo, founded in 1382 on the site of an old Moorish palace and where the Tribunal of the Holy Office of Jaén, one of the oldest in Spain, was founded.

After this short walk, we will arrive at the Fuente del Lagarto (Lizard Fountain), located in the heart of the Barrio de la Magdalena area, where we will tell the storey of the famous Lagarto de la Magdalena (Lizard of Magdalena) and how it terrorized the local people since time immemorial. We will discover its former home in the Raudal de la Magdalena and talk about how its days of terror came to an end.

We will end our visit in front of the Church of La Magdalena, where an old mosque once stood. There we can enjoy the view of a beautiful Patio del Sahn, where Muslims used to perform their ritual bath before entering the temple.