Although Plaza Primer de Mayo, where it is located, has now been displaced in civil importance by Plaza Vázquez de Molina, this was not the case until the 15th century, since it was the town council and most of the nobility families.

As for the building, as you can see, in one of its covers (the one on Cervantes Street), also called De Los Carpenteros, is a clear sample of Romanesque architecture. However, the one that gives to the square is of an isabelin Gothic style - where arches and vegetal motifs predominate - although the apse of ancient Romanesque construction has been preserved. The Renaissance part can be seen on the other side facade, which is composed of a tower, with a roof of bicolor ceramic, and a fountain.

As you enter its interior you will find a three-ship plant and a polygonal header with a late Gothic-style cross vault. Like other churches in Ubeda, it has funeral chapels with silver padding. In most of its chapels, there are procedural images of some of the local cofradies.

It was declared a National Historic Monument in 1926.

La fábrica gótica, que apenas sufrió en el saqueo de la ciudad en torno a 1368, casi estaba ultimada hacia 1377, fecha en la que tan solo restaban por construir las portadas y la torre. A lo largo del siglo XVI este templo, construido íntegramente en piedra de cantería, tuvo una serie de intervenciones que provocaron un cambio muy importante, tanto arquitectónicamente como en sus bienes muebles, de tal forma que siendo como era un templo esencialmente gótico, sin embargo la incorporación de piezas renacentistas le infunden una imagen ciertamente renovadora y muy bella.

Aunque la portada de poniente se traza en estilo tardo gótico bajo el obispado de Alonso de la Fuente el Sauce (1500- 1520), el resto de las obras desarrolladas a lo largo del siglo XVI serán ya decididamente renacentistas, en algunas de las cuales hay constancia documental de la intervención de Andrés de Vandelvira. A Vandelvira tradicionalmente se le ha venido atribuyendo la gran portada de la capilla del deán Ortega, fechada en 1537; aunque documentalmente no puede probarse como obra suya, sin embargo ciertos elementos arquitectónicos, como el uso de columnillas, la relacionan con otras de juventud como la portada del Pósito de su ciudad natal, Alcaraz, o la también ubetense portada claustral de Santa Clara.

La portada, muy rica en cuanto a los elementos decorativos -probablemente labrados por el escultor Esteban Jamete-, está formada por un gran arco de medio punto flanqueado por columnas corintias sobre basamentos con calaveras, en las enjutas maceros, en el friso figuración alegórica; se corona el conjunto con el blasón nobiliario de la familia del deán Ortega inserto en un tondo adornado con bella decoración escultórica y cartelas con inscripciones.

A partir de la segunda mitad del quinientos el viejo templo se enriqueció con otras piezas en las que Vandelvira participa directamente, y cuyo conocimiento debemos a V. M. Ruiz Fuentes. En 1564 se contrataba con el cantero Pedro de Gorostiaga la portada de los pies y la bóveda encasetonada que cubre el acceso al interior del templo por este lado, que debían realizarse con arreglo a las trazas y condiciones de Vandelvira. De Vandelvira es también la bellísima capilla bautismal cubierta con una bóveda de casetones abocinada -semejante al ochavo de La Guardia, aunque de menores proporciones-, que se está realizando, junto con la escalera, el pozo y pila contiguos, en 1553 por los canteros Tomás Gil de Donesteban y Pedro de Regil, a quienes se la había cedido Vandelvira.

A instancias del obispo Diego de los Cobos (1560-1565) se construyeron, al margen de la citada portada de los pies, una gran portada de acceso a la vieja sacristía con las armas del prelado y diseño manierista y tras esta una nueva sacristía de traza rectangular, cuya ejecución material estuvo a cargo de Pedro de Gorostiaga, aunque con toda probabilidad bajo la dirección de Vandelvira.

Con todo, dejando a un lado la gran portada de la capilla del Deán, la obra más específicamente vandelviriana es la portada de los pies, cuyo trazado, en opinión de Arsenio Moreno Mendoza, constituye en sí una de las obras manieristas más experimentales y vigorosas de toda la arquitectura del siglo XVI. Responde su esquema a un arco triunfal de medio punto con dobles columnas a los lados elevadas sobre basamentos y entre ellas hornacinas aveneradas; sobre el entablamento un gran arco central para cobijar la escultura del Santo titular y dos más pequeños con veneras sobre los cuales campean las armas del obispo Diego de los Cobos, mientras que sobre la rosca del arco central se asientan dos figuras que sostienen un segundo entablamento con Dios Padre sobre él con frontón triangular como remate y flameros a los extremos.

Esta singularísima composición arquitectónica se ameniza con abundante decoración escultórica, en parte desaparecida y, en general, en mal estado de conservación, debida probablemente a Lorenzo Brogio, de posible ascendencia italiana.

OTRAS MANIFESTACIONES ARTÍSTICAS NO ARQUITECTÓNICAS

La excelente arquitectura gótico-renacentista de esta parroquia se completa igualmente con algunas piezas muebles de gran valor artístico. La capilla del deán Ortega es sin duda la más suntuosa, pues aún mantiene su original reja, forjada en el siglo XVI por el ubetense Juan Álvarez de Molina, con bellísimos motivos renacentistas, el escudo del Deán y en la crestería la Asunción de la Virgen rodeada por ángeles tañiendo instrumentos musicales; el interior solo conserva parte de su retablo renacentista, en cuya ejecución intervinieron el pintor Julio de Aquiles y el escultor Juan de Reolid, pero incorporando en él estilemas vandelvirianos.

Ya en la iglesia, son dignos de destacar el púlpito en forja con el escudo del obispo Diego de los Cobos (1560-1565) y los restos de la sillería de coro, tallada a mediados del siglo XVIII. Dentro de la imaginería contemporánea cabe resaltar el conjunto de la Santa Cena, obra de Amadeo Ruiz Olmos, y un Jesús Resucitado, talla de Francisco Palma Burgos.

The cover breaks the symmetry of the facade and appears decorated with a shield, with elements typical of the Renaissance and Spanish mannerism. On one side, there is another mannerist cover, with a tile image of the Virgin of the Castle. The tower has an unusual rectangular floor and relief decoration in the part of the bell tower that recalls the work in brick. The interior is one-ship, covered with a half-barrel vault. Some "trophies" considered from the battle of Navas de Tolosa are preserved.

The parish of San Miguel, extinct as such in the year 1843, is part of the set of temples ruined in the 19th century, however its gothic-mudejar factory, plus the elements added in the 16th century such as the tower and the cover, have had better luck than those of San Pedro, Santa Cruz, Santiago, Salvador or San Lorenzo, of which only a thorough archaeological work would provide certain data about its formation.

The following remains still persist among the adjacent houses: the apse of the church with windows of brick of Mudejar tradition, the crypt, one of the side chapels, part of the tower, the side wall of the sacristy, some of the midterms of the central ship and its beautiful cover. The preservation of this cover was of concern to the historians of the 19th century; especially significant is the description of it and of the church Pi and Margall in 1885: "The cover of the church of San Miguel and one of the cathedral reveal even in its minor details, elegance, delicacy, and taste. What a pity he's doomed to disappear such a beautiful work! The church to which it opened, is already a courtyard where the waters of the sky make the yerba grow; and there is the cover alone, completely isolated. Who will doubt it to melt?"

Fortunately, the concern for the fate of this unique piece also took place in the local authorities. In 1918 the Council of Jaén agreed to promote the file for its declaration as an artistic monument. In 1920 the transfer to the church of San Pedro was planned, at that time in reconstruction, although at present nothing remains of it. But it would not be in this temple where it is finally located, but in the future Provincial Museum, approved in the year 1920 as Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts the Giennense Don José del Prado and Palacios. The project was largely carried out by the architect A. Flores Urdapilleta. The cover chairs the courtyard of the Museum on the axis with that of the Posite (16th century), located on the outside of the building.

The historiography has traditionally linked this San Miguel cover to Andrés de Vandelvira. Perhaps of the first researchers to do so was Dean Mazas in 1794: "The churches of parishes are in that poor state of their foundation, except some arranged portadite that was later added as that of San Miguel by hand, or direction of Vandelvira (...)." Although documentary references on the assignment are not known so far, the architectural formulation points directly to the authorship of Andrés de Vandelvira.

According to the cover itself, it was worked between 1560 and 1561, being prelate of the diocese Don Diego de los Cobos, promoter of the Hospital of Santiago in Úbeda, designed and directed by Andrés de Vandelvira. The cover of San Miguel is one of the clearest pieces of Vandelvira, whose design of siloesque inspiration was already developed on the lower body of the cover of the feet of the Salvador de Ubeda; its compositional scheme of a single body (repeated on the cover of San Nicolás de Ubeda and San Juan Evangelista de Mancha Real) is formed on the basis of a half-point arch flanked by pairs of Corinthian columns on pedestals with avenerated niches in the intercolumnios, which will remain until the mid-17th century within what has come in the beginning of the school of the 1561; this was completed in the following year in the inscription: and reverend Mr. D. Diego de los Cobos "; it is completed with a hornina to house the holy headline and various geometric elements, equally very vandelvirians.

It is a church of Gothic origin, and in its interior it stands out among other important aspects: its high dimensions, the pointed arches and the vaults of a sexpartite type with which its central ship is covered; as well as a profusely decorated craft that is under the choir. On the outside it has a magnificent architectural set, with its robust tower, with a top body of hogged bells on others of square base and decreasing section, topped by the classic stone vases in the corner and a sharp chapitel; the general body of the church made in stone of great chromatic beauty; and three covers, of them the most interesting, the one located on its southern façade, of beautiful silver bill, dated in 1530, with three hornacinas covered by a weave between contrapres and a small upper roseton.

Inside it is a great altarpiece, work by Francisco Palma Burgos. The pulpit, chorus and baptismal pile of the mid-18th century also stand out. But its most important elements are the Sagrarian, one of the jewels of the sacred art of the province of Jaén, dates from the 17th century, built of ebony wood, ivory, silver and shell of Carey, and composed of a plateau with a baroque dome framed by four columns of shell with capitals and silver basements.

It completes a bell tower, simulating a swordsman, placed on the wall that links the header with the rest of the temple body, closing the strip that borders the only ship. In its interior it is adapted to the shape of a Latin cross and has an altarpiece of Renaissance origin and a baptismal pile of white marble to which its parishioners have in great esteem.

This church shows several constructive phases between the 16th and 18th centuries, ending in 1928. It began to be built in the 16th century by Andrés de Vandelvira responsible according to all the sources of the church's layout. Then it seems that the works were interrupted in 1575, possibly because of the architect's death. The works were reundertaken in 1614 at the initiative of Cardinal Baltasar Moscoso.
It is of Andalusian Renaissance style, from the school of Vandelvira. The tower and the sotochorus were built by Eufrassio López de Rojas. In their long constructive process, the great teachers who worked in the province at that time were involved: Andrés de Vandelvira, Juan de Aranda, Eufrassio López de Rojas and Ventura Rodríguez. The interior is a living room with three ships, covered by the central with semi-spherical vaults and side baits. The fresco paintings in the left vault of the cruise (XVI-XVII centuries) are recognized as San Esteban, San Sebastián, San Lorezno, San Antonio, San Nicolás, San Lucas and Santa Águeda.
The reorganisation of the internal space was put forward by Juan de Aranda, built in the 17th century, designing a high choir to take advantage of the wide gap between the foothills, also made the main Porta: Manierista in both its concept and in ornamentation, carved in stone and structured as an altarpiece. Its most striking elements are the half-point arch that opens the door, the double columns that flank it, the ornamental motifs such as diamond tip or the structural ones such as pilasters and semicircular parties.
From 1670 López de Rojas worked the chorus, covered the sotochorus with canyon vaults with lunetes and traced the tower, another of the temple's highlights. Its quadrangular base and first body, without decoration, point to strong stirring. In 1775 he would be in charge of raising the second body of the tower, Ventura Rodriguez. Cave of the cruise, with paintings representing the Evangelists and the Fathers of the Church, and an inscription that reads: "The year of a thousand six hundred and twenty-eight was over, with the Supreme Pontiff of Urban VIII, and Philip IV reigned, and the Bishop of Jaen was Cardinal Sandobal i Moscoso, prior to Dr. Martín Láñez Dávila and worker El Mº Antonio Cobos."
A fragment of the original altarpiece of the main altar (17th century) of Gil Fernández and Diego de Landeras is preserved in the sacristy.
It was declared a Historical Monument in 1983