JAÉN

Saint Catherine’s Castle sits on the top of a hill overlooking the city; it is sitting on a Muslim fortress on the 10th century. Some remains still exist. 
 

After the Christian winning back in the 13th century, the Muslim castle was divided into three parts: the Abrehuy Castle, the Old Fortress and the New Fortress. The two first ones were destroyed in 1965 to build the new tourist hotel. 
 

The castle was a walled recint, independent from the city. The governor and his troops lived there. It is made of two parts: the castle, on the top of the hill, and the rampart, in its skirt.
 

As the Al-Ándalus situation was in constant changing, the political-administrative place was moved into a fortress. The first place, or Abrehuy Castle, took up the lowers quota. Then, the Old Fortress took up the rest of the top of the hill 
 

Alfonso X and Ferdinand IV started the building up of the New Fortress. It has a triangular form and it’s defended by four towers. 
 

The white cross is a donation from the Balguerias Family, but the legend says that Ferdinand III, after winning the Muslims, put a wooden cross on the highest place of Jaén, which is its location nowadays. 
The history has passed through our castle. On the 19th century, Napoleon’s troops took Jaén and stayed in the fortress. They built a hospital, rooms and a very well-prepared square for fighting. 
 

Between 1810 and 1812, our castle became an extremely cruel prison. The Old Prison, in the city, was used to common crimes, but the castle was used to political prisoners; plenty of them were murdered. 
There’s a great variety of falcons and eagles, frogs, snakes, lizards, Iberian wall lizards, hares, wild boars, deers, goats and some Iberian lynx. There are five kinds of bats, but the most important one is the Horsesoe Bat, which measures 20 cm long. 
 

Nowadays, Saint Catherine’s Castle has such an splendid views from the top of the castle, where you can see each part of the city, and see the different monuments, like the cathedral or the old neighborhood. 
Teenagers have also imported a fashion that started in Italy: they write their names and the name of their couple in a padlock and put it anywhere.)
Now, Saint Catherine’s Castle takes part on a tourist project, called ‘’Ruta de los Castillos’’. It tries to get famous our castle, its beauty and, the most important thing, its history.