1. Prehistory
In the surroundings of what we call the Sierra de Cazorla region, the presence of man took place from an early moment, despite the geographical and physical conditions of the area in which it is located. Perhaps at an advanced time in the Neolithic period, lithic remains such as those found in El Chorro came from, characterised by flint leaves and lenticular pieces and occupations in caves, with abundant ceramics and even schematic cave paintings, such as the cave of the Lacemaker or cave of the Nun, located about 6 km away. of Quesada and where the figures of a carmine red deer stand out. This figure is of Levantine typology, in a naturalistic style. Two small schematic human figures and various lithic tools have also been found, such as polished axes, scrapers, pieces of flint, archers’ bracelets… As well as various engravings of concentric circles or spirals in the rock. At present, 21 shelters or caves have been found dating back to between 4000-3000 BC. UNESCO has declared the Levantine arch a WORLD HERITAGE SITE , to which the interprovincial complex of Jaén, Granada and Almería belong in Andalusia, including the paintings of eight caves in the region.
But it was during the period known as the Final Copper (2000 BC) when the first stable settlements were established on the oldest terraces of the Cerezuelo River, near the Cuesta de la Pioja and the confluence with the Cañamares River. Thus, on a hill near Cazorla and known as the Loma del Bellotón, there is a small village of the Bronze Age culture (1500 B.C.).
2. Iberians and Romans
Already in the last millennium BC, the Iberian culture developed widely in the province of Jaén. In the region of the Sierra de Cazorla it is well represented, highlighting the presence of the monumental chamber tomb in the village of Toya (Peal de Becerro), a unique element within the Iberian world. Closer to Cazorla are the town of the Plaza de Armas on the Cañamares River or the hill of Cabeza del Rey, within a chronology of the V-III century BC. One of the most important Iberian settlements in the region is that of Los Castellones de Ceal, located next to the Ceal stream, and dated to the sixth century BC. This Iberian village must have been of great importance, as evidenced by the significant wealth of the finds obtained (abundant Athenian ceramics with black varnish and figures painted in red and, above all, numerous weapons).
The Romans settled in this region whose wealth did not go unnoticed by their sense of economic exploitation. An abundant number of “Villae” of an agricultural nature were developed in it: perhaps the best known is that of Bruñel (Quesada) in which some colorful mosaics with human and naturalistic figures stand out. Other Roman remains have been found in Nubla, in the fertile plain of the Cerezuelo river or in the farmhouse of Los Almansas (Chilluévar)…, and some remains have even been detected within the town of Cazorla itself.
3. Muslims and Christians. The Overtaking of Cazorla
From the Islamic occupation and at a late point in it, it is when numerous population embryos appear in the region of the Sierra de Cazorla, very possibly after the Almohad presence and the beginning of the Taifa kingdoms. The archaeological remains found in the old part of the town or in the castles of La Yedra or Las Cinco Esquinas, seem to document this. With the location of the border between the Christian and Muslim worlds on the line of the Guadalquivir, medieval Cazorla and the neighbouring towns were fortified and would be for many years a place of struggle to access the interior of the kingdom of Granada.
Ferdinand III, “The Saint”, by virtue of a rolling privilege, which he signed in Salamanca on January 20, 1231, donated in perpetuity, to Santa María de Toledo and in the person of D. Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada and his successors, the territories that, once conquered, would come to constitute the lordship called Adelantamiento de Cazorla.
Its jurisdiction lasted until 1811, when the Cortes of Cádiz abolished all lordships.
During the war of independence, the residents of this region were distinguished by their patriotism, fighting heroically against the invader. As a reward for such high services, the General Courts of Cádiz granted, on April 1, 1831, to the Villa de Cazorla, the title of City, with the distinction of “Very Noble and Loyal”. Later, Alfonso XII rewarded Cazorla’s loyalty to the Crown throughout the Carlist conflict by granting his City Council the category of Excellency.
Both Cazorla and other municipalities that today are an integral part of the Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas Natural Park, were during the Middle Ages and Modern Ages, towns and villages dependent on the Primate See of Toledo, which were part of the Adelantamiento and constituted a border with those of the Military Order of Santiago.
During the Middle Ages, the Lordship of Cazorla was a border enclave of great importance. Testimony to this is the dense network of castles and fortresses that delimited the Adelantamiento created in 1231, with the donation of the town of Quesada and its villages by Ferdinand III the Saint to the prelate of Toledo. This archbishop, Don Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada, participated in the expeditions carried out against Islam, in collaboration with the Holy See, which granted them a bull in 1233 authorizing the granting of crusading benefits to all those who took part in the fight against the Muslims.
It would be the person of the Archbishop of Toledo who, from this moment on, would appoint the position of adelantado and initiate the conquest of territory while establishing the bases for its repopulation. The position of captain general imposed on him the obligation to ensure the security of the towns and villages, in addition to those of dispensing justice and collecting taxes.
Thus, the prelates of Toledo carried out an intense governmental work in the Adelantamiento de Cazorla throughout the late medieval centuries. The result of this was the creation of new villages and the restructuring of the territory.
Once the conquest of the territory was completed, with the renunciation of Baza and the incorporation of Iznatoraf (1252), the Adelantamiento acquired its definitive territorial configuration. The Infante Sancho of Castile (1250-1261) reorganised the administration and granted each of the towns (Cazorla, Quesada and Iznatoraf) their own villages and municipalities.
The causes that motivated the granting of villazgos were different on each occasion, but all were directly related to the political events of the kingdom of Castile, the appearance of new economic centers and the vicissitudes of the borders, causing small migrations of the population in what would be granted the geographical center of the Adelantamiento.
From 1331 onwards, the villas were geographically located with very specific functions. The region of Quesada, configured in 1257 with the villages of Pelos, Toya, Peal de Becerro, Dos Hermanas, Villamotín, Aosín, Fic, Torres de Aliccún, Cuenca (de Hinojares). Chiellas, Cebas and Cortes, located south of the Adelantamiento, was to defend the border with the kingdom of Granada. Iznatoraf, separated from Cazorla and Quesada by the Guadalquivir, and its villages: Sorihuela del Guadalimar, La Moraleja and Torres de Mingo Pliego, became the most important economic centre of the Lordship.
Cazorla with its villages of La Iruela, Nubla, Alcaray and later Burunchel and Retamal, controlled the eastern border of the Adelantamiento. The town received an extensive alfoz (in the Middle Ages, a rural area that depended on the town’s municipal authorities) throughout the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. From 1331 onwards, its boundaries were further increased when its jurisdiction extended over the villages that until then had belonged to Quesada.
This organization was modified in 1331, by Quesada’s donation to the council of Úbeda. The lordship was momentarily left with two villas: Iznatoraf and Cazorla. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, three new towns were created: Villacarrillo, Villanueva del Arzobispo and La Iruela
La Iruela was a town in 1367 and again a village in 1370 for political reasons. The creation of the villazgo of La Iruela had its origin in the Castilian civil war (1362-1369) in which the Adelanto was involved. Each town of the Lordship had to take sides with one of the sides, sometimes against the Archbishop allied to the pretender. Cazorla did it against his lord
and in favor of Don Pedro I. Don Gómez Manrique, in compensation for the fidelity of La Iruela, granted him the independence of Cazorla. But La Iruela enjoyed its privilege for a short time since in 1370 the archbishop repealed the villazgo. The Council of that town filed a complaint against the Council of Cazorla on the arrival at the See of Toledo of Don Pedro Tenorio, without obtaining any result because it lacked a lord to support it.
4. Cazorla in the Modern Age (sixteenth-nineteenth centuries)
After the Reconquest, the Adelantamiento de Cazorla lost its strategic value and remained in fact a mere Lordship. However, as the advantageous position of adelantado, appointed by the archbishops of Toledo, was very attractive, there were occasions when members of the nobility or influential families tried, in a more or less open struggle, to achieve that appointment. This was the case in the sixteenth century with the powerful Secretary of Charles I, Don Francisco de los Cobos from Ubeta. And not only did he succeed, but he managed to make the title hereditary. In this way the so-called Schism of the Advancement took place, or a period in which the government of the lordship passed into the hands of the Marquis of Camarasa, a descendant of Don Francisco de los Cobos, but not without the Church of Toledo opposing it through a very long lawsuit that confronted the two claimants to the title, the Archbishopric of Toledo and the Camarasas. The conflict lasted from 1545 to 1606, when Cardinal Sandoval Rojas put an end to the dispute by granting significant compensation to the Camarasas, while the Mitra reserved ownership over the Adelantamiento.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, lawsuits arose between the Crown and the Mithras over issues of jurisdiction, privileges and revenues that impoverished the Lordship. In 1811, the Cortes of Cádiz abolished the civil jurisdiction of the Mitra Toledana over these lands, although the same did not happen with the ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Cazorla and the other towns and villages of the Adelantamiento remained dependent on the archbishopric of Toledo until 1954.