THE HISTORICAL VILLAGE CENTRE OF IZNÁJAR

The Arch, which is the entrance to this neighbourhood today, was the door of the ‘medina’ of Iznájar in another time. For acceding to it, not only it was necessary to cross the mentioned door but it had to be crossed the two ones that were located in a tower which disappeared in the 1930s. This entrance is bent and it is easy to defend from the ‘adarves’ located into both sides of it, which turned it into an impregnable fortress practically.

In the entry of the enclosure, on the right, it is found the Municipal Arts Centre that is the central office of the local

museums.

It has been tried to collect a considerable part of the ethnographic and cultural patrimony of the municipal area, with the Museum of Implements of Tillage and Popular traditions, which was created in

1996 by municipal initiative: implements and agricultural tools, and the traditional craftsmanship or ceramic that recreate the ways of life in the farmhouses and country houses in other times.

Close to the previous one, we can find the Museum of Arts and Crafts that was created in 2007. It has been paid a tribute to those missing trades recreating the interior of a

harness-maker’s

shop, of a traditional barber’s shop and also of a forge of iron-works. They were trades

that were a sign of identity of the population of Iznájar.

The Departmen of Culture of Iznájar’s City Hall and the donations of the families of the village, which are directed by Rafael Quintana, have made

possible the visitors can revive a period of the cultural history of the municipal area through the museums of arts and crafts. It shows the way of life and how the everyday existence in the village of Iznájar was until the modern ways of life were pushing aside to this patrimonial wealth that is exposed in them.

The visit to the museums is completed with the Museum of Sculptures Naïf “Antonio Cañizares”, which has reserved an auditory from 2005 where is exposed an everlasting sample of the work of the singular and missing artist from Iznájar.

Antonio Cañizares “El Perlo” was an authentic maker of religious Naïf images and for this reason, the City Hall of his natal village has dedicated a museum where his art can be appreciated and enjoyed by everybody.

“Sacristan of Iznájar’s figurines do not limit themselves to possess

freshness and grace, they have bite to themselves; they are authentic works

of art because Antonio Cañizares is a real Naïf artist, although he is not

aware of it.”

Ángel Aroca

“If the sacred encourages the ingenious artists’ heart (denomination

of the Naïf), Antonio Cañizares, who is a maker of humble figurines of

mud, brushes the railings of heaven”.

Pablo García Baena

“Art is dying some time ago of being so wise and so old. For this

reason, Antonio Cañizares’ creations, which are made of refined crudeness

and of exquisite unkilfulness, are received as a message that comes from to

us from the authentic and wild thing”.

“…he was losing the respect to the images to which cleaned the

powder or repainted the chipped ones and he even dared to shape angels,

virgins, crucifixes and saints in order to create a kind of parallel church to

the official one. A pigmea church of infantile and wonderful worship in

which he reproduced too others invented and not less miraculous images,

adding them his personal graceful”.

José Hierro

Inside the fortified enclosure, on the right, we can find the “Patio de las Comedias” whose name comes from the theatrical representations that were made in this place in another time. At the back, there is a small viewing-point close to one of the towers of the enclosure where you can find on it an image of “San Rafael”.

The Parish Church of “Santiago Apóstol” which is in the highest part of the villa, dominates with its imposing masses of stone work. It is an unfinished work that was developed from 1945 to 1638 and that constituted an ambitious Renaissance project whose authorship is attributed to Hernán Ruiz “el Jóven”.

A wide restoration during the year 2005 to the year 2008 has returned its magnificence. This

restoration was carried out from the Bishopric with the collaboration of the City Hall and the employment agency. The Parish Church projects its image on the peculiar cemetery of Iznájar which is configured as a small village built with the limitations imposed by the place, in which its drops and still slopes are saved with small borders and stairs.

Close to the Parish Church, there is a peaceful square called “Rafael Alberti” that is surrounded with orange trees. In this square, we find a mosaic of

glazed tiles in which can be read the poem “Torre de Iznájar” from the book “La Arboleda Perdida” that remembers Rafael Alberti’s return to the village of Iznájar in 1989 after the visits that he realized in his youth.

In the same square of the castle, square of Alín Ben Cacín, there was an old granary that was built in times of Charles III and was reconverted to Municipal Library. This library is valued both, its number and quality of volumes and by its architecture.

In the highest part of the “Barrio de La Villa” it is found the Castle of

Iznájar which is symbol and genesis of the village. It began its building about the half of the 8th century, probably by Spanish-Goth builders and it continued with successive reconstructions and extensions until the 15th century. This castle, which is of Arabic Origin, gives name to the village; the name derives from the noun “hisn” (castle) and from the adjective “al-ashar” (happy).

It was not until the 10th century when was formed the floor that the castle presents nowadays. In the 11th century, the walls, which

surround the court of weapons, were raised and it was built the first enclosure that was reinforced in the ‘nazarí’ period, including the current “Barrio de La Villa”.

The second fortified enclosure, which is already ‘nazarí’ completely, was accommodated to the area for its use and its buildings were reduced to the doors and on which the village is put up.

The first historical news of the castle dates from the second half of the 9th century due to Umar Ben Hafsún’s ‘muladí’ revolt. During this period, Iznájar changed hands several times and its population was very punished. It was the fear of the reprisals what led the inhabitants of the village to beheading their governor Fadl Ben Salama (he was considered the founder of Iznájar by many people) and to sending his head to the Emir Abd Allah as a sign of submission. In this way, they avoided the reprisals against the population that had been carried out in previous revolts.

Fernando III El Santo’s Christian Reconquest would not come to Iznájar which remained joined to the kingdom of Granada until the first half of the 15th century. Its frontier situation took the village to frequent periods of war. The definitive incorporation to the kingdom of Castilla takes place during the monarchy of Juan II and later by 1468 it was created the Viscounty of Iznájar; Diego Fernández De Córdoba (Lord of Baena and Count of Cabra) received the jurisdiction and the dominion of this village by his adhesion to the Monarch Enrique IV. This title of nobility belongs in force nowadays to the inheritors “Fernández de Córdoba”.

The castle was turned into Duke of Sesa’s manager’s housing in the 18th century who kept this function until the 20th century. The castle was acquired to his last owners (The Count of Revilla and his brothers) by the Town Hall in 1991 when it was part of the local patrimony.

After the archaeological intervention realized by the “Junta de Andalucía” the works of restoration in the monument started. The works of recovery of the historical patrimony, which were begun in March 2007, were consequence of the municipal investment, the collaboration of the “Diputación Provincial de Córdoba” through the “Programme of Recovery of Historical

Patrimony” and of the signed agreement through the called “Cultural Found of the 1%” within the approved proceeding by the Department responsible for public works, buildings, etc and by the Department of Culture.

Behind the Parish Church and the castle, it appears a wonderful viewing-point Muhamad Ben Cabena’s square. This viewing-point is possible due to the situation of the “Barrio de la Villa” that is located in the highest part of the hill where the village is placed.

In this square, the visitors will find a great peace and they will delight in the sights of the reservoir and the filled hills of olive groves.

Both, the “Barrio de la Villa” and the viewing-point of the hillside of the castle have been a source of inspiration along the times.

“Iznájar, which is straightened in the hills, with a Moorish castle, an

immense decayed millstone that raises yet on the mouth of an abyss the

crenellated power of its towers”.

Rafael Alberti, -La Arboleda Perdida-