Baños de la Encina

About Baños de la Encina

Baños de la Encina stands at about 420 metres on a hill between the Sierra Morena and the olive country of the Jaén campiña. Its Moorish street plan grew around a castle built for Caliph al-Hakam II and finished in 968. The centre was declared a Conjunto Histórico in 1969, the village joined Los Pueblos más Bonitos de España in 2021, and about 2,500 people live in the municipality.

The Castillo de Burgalimar keeps 14 rammed-earth towers and a later keep (about €4, timed entries). The Iglesia de San Mateo on Plaza de la Constitución pairs a late 15th-century Gothic nave with a 1596 tower. Calle Santa María and Calle Trinidad are lined with 16th–18th-century houses, and the Ermita del Cristo del Llano hides a Baroque camarín of polychrome stucco and mirrors.

Baños is 12 km north of Bailén and the A-4, an hour from Jaén and 1 hour 15 minutes from Córdoba. Park near the tourist office on Avenida José Luis Messía, where castle tickets are sold; the cobbled lanes and castle steps limit wheelchair users to the lower streets. Allow two to three hours. It suits history lovers, photographers and families.

Spring and autumn are best, as Sierra Morena summers are very hot. The Noche de la Rosa medieval festival takes over the streets on the last weekend of July, and Candelaria bonfires burn on 2 February. Try cucharro, venison and wild boar, migas santeras and local honey. Ask at the tourist office about seeing the camarín.

Baños de la Encina in pictures

What you’ll find

• CastleCastle entry (€4, 10:00–18:00)Ticket
• ChurchChurch visitFree
• FestivalAnnual festivalFree
• Guided tourGuided tourBook
• Historic centreOld town walkFree
• Local foodLocal cuisineBuy
• Moorish quarterMoorish heritage walkFree
• Tourist officeVisitor informationFree
• ViewpointSightseeingFree

Nearby places to visit

The Castillo de Burgalimar (under 1 km) is the reason most people come, one of the oldest castles still standing in Spain. Linares, to the south, has the Andrés Segovia Museum (15 km) and the Raphael Museum of Linares (15 km), and beyond it the Iberian and Roman city of Cástulo (20 km). Northwards along the A-4, the Museum of the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (27 km) recalls the battle of 1212. On the Rumblar reservoir below the village lies Peñalosa, a Bronze Age settlement of the Argaric culture studied by the University of Granada.