The Arenas Castle was built around the 14th cen- tury, preserving structures from the 9th to the 11th century. It sits on the Cerro del Castillo de Puerta Arenas, in the Sierra de Alta Coloma, between Granada and Jaén.

The Portillo del río Campillo is the only practical way to cross this mountain range.

The plan of the castle, in the shape of an irregular triangle, is adapted to the plateau of the San Marcos hill, sloping to the east and naturally steep to the north. The enclosure of the castle of La Guardia is structured in two individualized and well-defined spaces: the fortress and the citadel. Located in the northwest corner of the enclosure is the fortress, a late work of the fifteenth cen- tury, formed and ornamented in the sixteenth century. It is rectangular and is defined by four towers of different features, a circular tower, two square towers and the keep, adapted to the orography of the terrain. It is surrounded by walls made of masonry joined by lime mortar and reinforced corners, sometimes rounded, with ashlar masonry.

Above the picturesque town of Albánchez de Mágina and integrated in the Castle of Albánchez de Mágina, is this viewpoint. Its extensive views, which dominate a large part of the territory, confirm the reason for the location of the watchtower castle that crowns them. 

The abrupt mountainous contour contrasts with the large extensions of olive groves, main source of the economy of the area, which are drawn on the slopes and plains. Breaking the olive grove landscape in two, the banks of the Bedmar River wind their way through. In the background, the villages of Baeza, Úbe- da and Bedmar stand out on the horizon. 

Above the latter is the imposing peak of the Cueva del Aire, followed by the Serrezuela de Bedmar and the Golon- drina, all of them around 1,500 meters high. Already in the distance, it is possible to see the neighboring Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas, and is that from this place few things escape us. This viewpoint is reached through the Castillo de Albánchez trail.

The castle of Jimena, located on a rocky eleva- tion, the Peña Bermeja, was situated in front of Baeza, from which only fifteen kilometers separated it, with the natural moat of the Guadalquivir in between. Jimena controlled the important road linking Baeza with the Jandulilla basin and the subbetic system. Of the medieval castle of Jimena today only the keep is preserved.

Castle of Muslim origin that had a great strategic importance after its Castilian conquest by Ferdinand III in 1229, being in the front line against the kingdom of Granada.

This brought great modifications in its citadel, while two large towers of homage (Vieja and Nueva) were built, used as the residence of the ancient lords. One of the towers was restored in the 80’s and is cur- rently the Reception and Interpretation Center of the Natural Park of Sierra Magina. It can be visited on weekends. It was declared a Historic Monument in 1985. In 1993 the Junta de Andalucía granted special recognition to the castles of the Autonomous Community of Andalusia

Cuevas

The creation of industries attracted many people to Jódar and the poorest people were forced to live in caves that each family dug according to their needs.

Jódar was the most traditionally troglodytic town in Sierra Mágina and the province, with more than 25% of the inhabited caves in the province in 1900.
In 1944, in Jódar, when 3,000 people lived in 400 caves, some inhabited by more than one family. Even at the end of the 1960s, numerous families were still living in them, but their number was gradually decreasing: 11 in 1981 and 4 in 1991.

This interesting Interpretation Center “guides the visitor, by means of different audiovisual and graphic supports, through the historical events that have surrounded this paranormal phenom- enon since its appearance in the 1970s to the present day, showing the documentation on its media repercussion over the years, the publications dedicated to this fact, as well as a reference to the different theories and hypotheses elaborated on this issue”.