Where to Stay in Linares, Andalusia

What is Linares known for?

Torre de Perdigones La Tortilla and the Inmueble Minero Industrial Venus are the industrial entries on the municipal register, and the Casa de la Munición keeps a munitions name in the same company. Churches answer back. The Basilica of St. Mary Major, the Iglesia de San Agustín and the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Linarejos carry the devotional side of Linares.

Museo Arqueológico de Linares holds the older record.

What are the main landmarks in Linares?

Ten entries, half of them towers. Torre de Perdigones La Tortilla, Torre del Castro de la Magdalena and the Torre del Convento de las Esclavas give Linares three towers of quite different origin, while the Inmueble Minero Industrial Venus and the Casa de la Munición carry the industrial names. The Basilica of St. Mary Major leads the churches.

Iglesia de San Agustín and the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Linarejos follow it, with Casa Pajares and the Museo Arqueológico de Linares closing the register.

What is the history of Linares?

The founding year went unrecorded here. Linares carries no charter date in the record, so its sequence has to be read from the buildings still standing in the province of Jaén rather than from a single line on a document, and those buildings run from archaeology to heavy industry. The Museo Arqueológico de Linares holds the earliest end.

Torre del Castro de la Magdalena carries a name older than the industrial town, and the Torre del Convento de las Esclavas belongs to the conventual phase that came between. Industry followed the convents. Torre de Perdigones La Tortilla, the Inmueble Minero Industrial Venus and the Casa de la Munición are what the mining period left upright, and they are the reason this municipality reads differently from other towns of Andalusia standing at much the same altitude.

Churches held the middle ground. The Basilica of St. Mary Major and the Iglesia de San Agustín anchor the built centre, while the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de Linarejos keeps its dedication apart from them. Casa Pajares completes the list.

Between them the ten entries account for 195 square kilometres whose register carries mine buildings and church towers in almost equal number, which is an unusual balance for the province of Jaén.

Where is Linares?

Altitude sets the tone. Linares stands at 419 metres on upland ground of the province of Jaén, and the municipality spreads across 195 square kilometres from its built centre out to open country. The centre itself is compact.

Basilica of St. Mary Major, Iglesia de San Agustín and the Museo Arqueológico de Linares fall inside it, while Torre de Perdigones La Tortilla and the Inmueble Minero Industrial Venus mark the industrial ground beyond, with the rest of Andalusia further out again.

What is the climate of Linares?

Altitude drives the climate in Linares. The temperate band recorded for the province of Jaén reaches Linares at 419 metres, and that elevation, rather than any sea or mountain range named in the record, is what separates its days from its nights. Indoors, the register helps.

Museo Arqueológico de Linares, the Basilica of St. Mary Major and Casa Pajares take a wet afternoon between them.

How do you get to Linares?

Only the road brings you in. Approach runs across the province of Jaén, and the practical move on arrival is to park once, because the streets around the Basilica of St. Mary Major and the Iglesia de San Agustín walk easily from end to end. The municipality is wider than that.

Torre de Perdigones La Tortilla and the Inmueble Minero Industrial Venus stand out towards the working edge of the 195 square kilometres, which is where a car earns its keep again in Linares.