After the Muslim conquest, between the 8th and 9th centuries, a walled complex was built structured in two spaces: a large enclosure or fortress at the summit and the fortress itself, on the northern slope, which takes advantage of the remains of the Roman wall. The citadel was a large defensive-residential enclosure, in which a rectangular building with a porticoed patio has been documented, which could have been the residence of the first governors of the city during the Emiral-Califal era. The transfer of the capital from the Kura to Jayyān in the 9th century led to a strong development of the city, restoring the existing fortification structures, while new walls and towers were built. The changing political situation in al-Andalus between the 11th and 13th centuries caused an intense reform of the walls, which culminated in the transformation of the summit fortress into a large and complex fortress. Thus, a large fortified complex structured in two enclosures is configured: at the west end, a first enclosure is erected in mortar mud, with an irregular floor plan, known as Castillo de Abrehuí; To the east is the main enclosure, known as Alcázar Viejo, which was accessed through a gate protected by two parallel towers. At the same time, a new political-administrative space was built in the eastern area of ​​the Alcázar Viejo, a palace of which archaeological investigations have managed to recover various vestiges, as well as determine how its distribution was, differentiating the lower and upper rooms, in which the palace was located, adorned with a profuse and luxurious decoration of plasterwork and ornate plinths that covered its walls (part of which are exhibited in the Museo Provincial de Jaén). The conquest of Jaén in 1246 determined an important alteration of the urban fabric of the city, and its defensive structures. The rammed earth walls and towers are covered with masonry linings. The old Islamic fortification on the summit maintained its old layout, except for the construction, between the 13th and 14th-15th centuries, of a new fortress that would occupy its eastern end, called Alcázar Nuevo. Its external perimeter is delimited by a walled enclosure that incorporates 6 towers, built in masonry. The towers are square in plan, except for the easternmost one (Sailing or Guard Tower) which has a pentagonal shape at the bow, by embedding an ancient Islamic tower inside. All of them are connected to each other by crenellated walkways. The Homenaje is divided into three rooms. The first, covered with four brick vaults that converge into a single central pillar and lacks exterior lighting, would have a storage function. The second is covered by a spherical brick vault supported at each corner by a stone column. The third floor has a polygonal brick vault and would have a residential function. In the archaeological excavations, decorated plasters also appeared, dated between the 14th and 15th centuries, which would cover the walls of the Santa Catalina chapel, perhaps introduced after the reforms carried out by Constable D. Miguel Lucas de Iranzo. To the east of the castle gate, on the north side of the enclosure, there are two albarran towers, the westernmost one, solid at the bottom and with an outbuilding at the top, houses the Capilla de Santa Catalina, patron saint of the city. The eastern one, much restored, would have a military function, lacking dependency, so it would form a solid cube crowned by a crenellated roof. On the south side there is a gate or postern next to Torre de las Troneras, which houses some latrines. Within the walls there were rooms and elements for the internal functioning of the castle: cisterns, a grinding area and other rooms. In the third quarter of the 15th century, during the civil war that took place during the reign of Enrique IV, Constable Miguel Lucas de Iranzo once again reinforced the city's defenses, providing the walls with a rampart and a moat, demolishing part of the walkways and blocking off some towers of the North wall, accentuating the city's contestability against the enemies of the Castilian monarch. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, remodeling took place in some rooms of the Alcázar Nuevo, which changed their function, new ones were built and the postern in the southern sector was blinded. At the beginning of the 19th century, the war of independence caused important changes in the structure of this fortress, despite which the external appearance of the medieval fortification is maintained. The renovations, which caused the destruction of structures and outbuildings, include the repair of walls, the cancellation of gates, the construction of new defensive structures, and the erection of large buildings for various uses, stables, barracks, hospital, guard posts, magazines, etc., of which there are hardly any remains today, as a consequence of the construction of the Parador de Turismo between 1963 - 1978 and the execution of various restoration works carried out in the 80s. The Santa Catalina hill has been populated since the Copper Age, although the oldest documented structures belong to an Iberian oppidum, dated around the 9th century BC, and identified as Oringis. Between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. The Romans transformed it into a new fortified settlement with a polygonal plan. The constitution of the Flavio Aurgitano Municipality, at the end of the 1st century AD, caused the rapid urbanization of the space currently occupied by the La Magdalena neighborhood, delimited by a walled enclosure. The abandonment and looting of buildings that formed the Roman forum or the presence of isolated tombs and garbage dumps show the progressive transformation of the city under imperialism between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, a mutation that would continue in the Visigothic era. After the Islamic conquest, the first news about present-day Jaén (Ŷayyān) dates back to the mid-19th century. IX when the Umayyad emir Abd al-Rahman II converted the city into the new capital of the Cora, erecting the citadel, the seed of the current castillo de Santa Catalina, as well as part of the walls that linked it to the city. At this time, the first palaces were being built, which would end up forming the fortress located in the medina. From the s. XI, and especially during the Almohad period (1169-1246), the city expanded towards the south. There was also the renovation and expansion of the Umayyad and Taifa castle located in the medina itself, equipped with lavishly decorated gardens and palaces, while a residential-administrative area was created in the castle. After the Castilian conquest in 1246, the urban configuration of Jaén must not have experienced major changes until the 14th-15th centuries. Fernando III proceeded to repopulate and distribute it, remaining in the hands of the Council and becoming an episcopal see. The instability of the territory until the conquest of Granada in 1492, and the noble struggles during the reign of Henry IV caused constant repairs to the defensive elements: the Almohad wall was covered with masonry, while the construction of a New Alcázar began at the eastern end of the Cerro de Santa Catalina. For its part, the Almohad fortress located in the epicenter of the city was in the hands of the Castilian crown until 1382 when it became the Santo Domingo convent. At the beginning of the 19th century, during the invasion of Spain by Napoleonic troops, Jaén and its defenses once again played a prominent role, maintaining control of the city in the face of the attack and looting of 1808, before passing into the hands of the French in 1810. The instability prevailing between 1808 and 1814 led to important remodeling of the fortifications of the hill, converting them into a large garrison from which to exercise control of most of the province and the roads to Granada and Córdoba After the end of the war of independence, the defensive structures of the hill and the city remained standing, although suffering a progressive process of deterioration, which became even more accentuated throughout the 20th century, at the end of which various restoration works were carried out. The castillo de Santa Catalina is a symbol for the people of Gienne and Juan Eslava Galán echoes it and continually introduces it in his works, as he does in The Templars and the Table of Solomon. (…) During my stays in Jaén I had gone up to castillo de Santa Catalina several times. After glimpsing the secrets of its builder, Alfonso X, I visited it again with a different spirit (…) The Templars and Solomon's Table. Chapter 18. LEGENDS Legend of the appearance of Santa Catalina. Legend has it that during the siege of Jaén, Santa Catalina de Alejandría appeared to King Ferdinand III in his dreams and showed him the keys to Jaén, taking it as an omen. The next day, the Muslims handed over the fortress to the Christian troops and in gratitude, Fernando III named Santa Catalina patron saint of the city, naming the newly conquered fortress after her. The chamber of statues. In the Old Castle there was a secret room with a tightly closed door, to which each king added a new lock. When he was already 24, a usurper who seized the throne refused to continue the tradition, ordering the ranch to be opened. Inside he found a high relief, made of metal and wood, with fearsome Arab warriors on horseback and an inscription that prophesied "If any hand opens the door of this castle, the flesh warriors who look like the metal warriors will take over the kingdom." Before the year was over, Tarik took the fortress. Legend of the castle cross. Legend says that when King Ferdinand III entered the fortress of Jaén, after conquering the Muslims, one of his captains thrust a sword, as a sign of triumph, into a rocky promontory at the southern end of the hill, from which the lands of Jaén are dominated. The shape created by the blade and the crossbar of the weapon resembled a Christian cross. King Ferdinand III, fascinated, decided that there would always be a large cross at that same point to remember the conquest of the Christian troops. A legend that ended up becoming tradition.

The fortified complex of Arjona, from medieval times, formed a complex and impregnable defensive system, made up of three walled enclosures: a first ring of walls marked by 24 towers that protected the city, an Alcazaba and the Alcázar. It would also have other defensive elements such as a moat, which has been documented to the south of the fortress, and a wall that would create a list or transit area. Seven gates flanked by pairs of towers would open in the walls of Arjona, except for the New Gate, which, in reality, was a gate. Most of these defensive elements were built with irregular masonry, which can be considered ashlar, joined with lime and sand mortar. The current Plaza de Santa María became the Alcazaba during the Middle Ages, located in the highest place in the area. A walled enclosure in which the palatine areas were built that housed the ruling classes and the military establishment. Occupying one end of it was the Alcázar, the political center of the city. The Iglesia de Santa María, which presides over the aforementioned square, is identified with the primitive Aljama mosque, which would be built in front of the Islamic palaces. Next to it, a large medieval cistern is preserved today, possibly Almohad, with a rectangular floor plan and covered with 3 barrel vaults supported by semicircular arches, which rest on Roman columns, some with inscriptions. Currently, some vestiges of its defenses remain standing, scattered among the hamlet, towers and canvases embedded in the backs of the houses, serving as party walls for homes located on the streets of Reloj, Belén, Sol, etc. In addition, there are fragments of the Alcazaba wall on the Paseo de los Mártires, acting as its retaining wall. Testimonies of canvases embedded in the party walls that separate Hospital de San Miguel and Alcázar Street are also preserved. The city of Arjona occupies the summit and upper slopes of a level hill, from which it dominates a large territory and the communication routes between the Guadalquivir valley and the Campiña. Due to its strategic value, it has been occupied from Prehistory to the present day.  A settlement from the Copper and Bronze Ages was located in the space now occupied by the Plaza de Santa María. Its occupation continued during the Iberian period, with the establishment of a medium-sized oppidum protected by a solid walled enclosure reinforced with bastions and towers, which would exceed the space of the current plaza. With the arrival of the Romans, the settlement became the municipium of Urgavo, one of the most important municipalities on a political level since the Augustan period and one of the first to achieve full Roman citizenship. Arjona will continue to be in the power of Rome until 412 AD, later, during the Visigothic period, the area of ​​occupation would be reduced to the highest area of ​​the hill. After the Muslim conquest, the Banu Bayla lineage settled in current Arjona, which will be known as Qal'at Aryununa. At this time the walls were reinforced and the citadel was built, occupying what was the Iberian oppidum. Arjona became the head of one of the main administrative districts (Iqlim) in which the Kura of Yayyan was structured, on which the existing rural settlements in its area of ​​influence would depend. At the end of the 9th century, the emir Abd Allah ordered Arjona and Andújar to be fortified, in order to concentrate the surrounding peasant population in these towns. The city of Arjona would be consolidated, like other towns in the Guadalquivir Valley, between the 11th and 13th centuries, as a consequence of the unstable political situation in al-Andalus after the disintegration of the Umayyad Caliphate, and due to the pressure of the Christian armies. During this period, the greatest development of the city took place, which resulted in a reinforcement of its defenses and the configuration of its medieval urban planning framework. In 1232 Muhammad ibn Yusuf ibn Nasr ibn al-Ahmar (Alhamar), originally from Arjona, proclaimed himself sultan in Jaén and six years later he founded a new kingdom with its capital in Granada. In 1244, Nuño González besieged Arjona and the Muslim authorities agreed to surrender, handing over the city without resistance. It became part of the royal lands, becoming one of the great councils of Villa y Tierra in which the kingdom of Jaén was structured. In the year 1248 it was granted the title of Villa by King Sancho. In compensation for the support provided, the city became part of the lordship of the Constable of Castile, Ruy López Dávalos, later becoming part of the possessions of D. Álvaro de Luna, who finally exchanged it to the Order of Calatrava for other possessions, which made it head of the Order's Encomienda. The disappearance of the Castilian-Nasrid border left a good part of the structures that made up the Arjona walled fence obsolete. After a restoration and musealization carried out in 2008, with sound and visual effects that imitate the sound and movement of water, it has become a tourist reference in the town. El Aljibe is part of the Route of the Castles and Battles of Jaén. Juan Eslava Galán uses the Aljibe Almohad to, once again, offer religious symbolism in his novel and remember his Iberian past. (…) On the ground, a few meters from the Baphomet, there was an iron trap. This must be the access to the Almohad cistern that the secretary of the town hall told us about -Pío deduced. "To the cistern and the spring," said Íñiguez. A spring in a high place sacralized a place in the religion of the Iberians. And here the Calatravos came to install the church and the Bafomet. (…) LEGENDS The victor's mare. Al-lushi had an excellent mare, which became so well known among the Christians of the neighboring regions that the Castilian king wanted to buy her at any price. But its owner was so in love with it that he denied it to her. For three nights he heard a voice in his dreams that told him: "Go to Arjona and take the mare with you; ask for one they call Mohammed-ben-Yusuf and as soon as you find him, sell her to him, because with her he will conquer Jaén and other cities and this conquest will be very beneficial for future generations." They told him that it must be Alhamar, so he left for Arjona. In the castle mosque he revealed his dream and they agreed on a price for the animal. A year later, Alhamar took the royal title in his hometown, Arjona, he took over the city of Jaén and later Córdoba, Seville, Granada, Málaga, Almería and many others, being the founder of the Nasrid dynasty and kingdom.