Baeza: the calmer half of Jaén’s Renaissance pair

This handsome little square, also called the Plaza de los Leones, is the gateway to the old town. At its centre stands the Fuente de los Leones, a Roman fountain moved here from the nearby Roman city of Cástulo. Around it sit the plateresque Casa del Pópulo — once the civil court, now the tourist office — and the old Antiguas Carnicerías, a 16th-century butchers’ hall that is now the courthouse. The Villalar arch and the Jaén gate close off the square. It is the town’s most photographed corner.

The Plaza de Santa María is the monumental heart of Baeza, and its cathedral rises over the whole square. Built on the site of a former mosque, the cathedral was reshaped in the 16th century by Andrés de Vandelvira and others, giving it a strong Renaissance character over Gothic bones. It was a bishop’s seat even before Jaén’s own cathedral, and it is still one of Spain’s oldest cathedrals in regular use. In the centre of the square stands the Fuente de Santa María, a stone fountain-arch finished in 1564 to mark the arrival of running water to the town. The whole space is quiet and dignified, best in the early morning before the day’s visitors arrive.

The most striking palace in Baeza has a flamboyant Isabelline Gothic front, carved with diamond points and heraldic shields for a rich, restless surface. Behind it, the courtyard and staircase are calmer and later in date. Built around 1500, the palace now houses the Antonio Machado seat of the International University of Andalusia. You can usually step into the patio.

Baeza’s old university was founded in the 16th century, before those of Jaén or Úbeda, and gave the town a scholarly reputation that lasted for centuries. The building is a rare example of sober Mannerist design here. Inside, it keeps the classroom where the poet Antonio Machado taught French from 1912. Today it serves as a secondary school, but the historic rooms can be visited.

This Gothic parish church, on the Calle San Pablo, is one of only three medieval churches still standing in Baeza. Its side façade and twin-belfry front rise over a street lined with the noble palaces that grew up around the parish from the 15th century. The interior mixes Gothic and later chapels. It is an easy, quiet stop in the north-east of the old town.

One of Baeza’s most unusual and least-visited corners. San Juan Bautista was a Romanesque church begun in the 13th century, in use until 1843, then stripped and left to decay. A restoration returned it to its bare basilical outline: six tall stone columns stand free in an open space, with the curved apse wall behind. It is now used for open-air events, and you can look in from the street or step inside.

A walk along the line of the old walls gives Baeza its best long views. From the Paseo and the Mirador de Antonio Machado, the land drops away into an endless sea of olive trees, with the Sierra de Cazorla on the horizon. The young Guadalquivir river crosses the plain below. It is the town’s finest spot at sunset, and an easy, level stroll.

This robust 12th-century tower, on the Plaza de España, is one of the few clear survivors of Baeza’s Muslim-era wall. Queen Isabella ordered most of the town’s towers pulled down in 1476, but this one, about 25 metres tall, remained. The clock on its face, added in the 19th century, was the first public clock in Baeza.

Baeza is made for wandering on foot. From the Plaza del Pópulo, streets of honey-coloured palaces lead up to the Plaza de Santa María and the cathedral, then on to the old university and the Palacio de Jabalquinto. The whole route is short and flat, so you can take it slowly. A free town map from the tourist office marks every stop, and morning light suits the stone best.

Jaén produces more olive oil than anywhere on earth, and Baeza sits in the middle of it. A working mill just outside town, at Begíjar (about 6 km away), opens its doors to visitors every day. You will walk the production line, learn how good oil is made and pressed, and finish with a guided tasting of extra-virgin oils — the difference from supermarket oil is a real surprise. A guided visit at Oleícola San Francisco adds an expert who explains what you are tasting and why, in English, on a 90-minute tour you can book ahead.

The Paseo de las Murallas is the town’s classic evening walk. Follow the old wall line to the Mirador de Antonio Machado and look out over the olive plain as the light turns gold. It costs nothing, takes about half an hour, and is at its best an hour before sunset. Bring a jacket in spring and autumn — the plateau cools quickly once the sun drops.

Antonio Machado, one of Spain’s great modern poets, lived and taught in Baeza from 1912 to 1919. You can join up the places tied to him: the classroom in the old university, the mirador that carries his name, and the streets he walked while writing. It is a low-key, self-guided theme that gives a short visit some shape, and the tourist office can point you to each spot.