This tower is the only thing left standing in the medieval defensive system. It is about 25 meters high to the parapet of the terrace and is a square base. The entrance is east and is located at 1.90 meters high. For it you can access a square room covered with brick vault. A little bit diverted from the center on the ground, a circular pebble is preserved, excavated in the rock.

The first floor is accessed by a staircase built on the north and west walls, which has a square room of 7.45 metres on its side. It is covered with a slightly pointed brick vault supported by two pointed arches of stone and brick. These stand on the north and south walls. The light is received from open saetas in the center of each wall. The staircase on the south wall is on the second floor. It is identical to the first, although the arches are based on the east and west walls. On the east wall there is a balcony, previously amattacanado, that was looking out for the entrance of the tower that is left in its vertical. This balcony was accessed by two straits. From the second floor you can access the terrace by a staircase on the west wall.

On the floor of the first floor, near the corners, built on the floor, there are four large ceramic silos and with 1.20 meters deep. They are inserted into the thickness of the underlying vault, which is the ground floor cover. On the second floor there are four other smaller ones. They all served to store grains or liquids. On the corners of the terrace of the tower there are still canes that were holding amattacan balconies.

The Tower is Well of Cultural Interest.

Historical data

The data relating to the medieval Génave are scarce, but it must have been one of the many foothills that populated the Sierra de Segura. A fortification or tower was probably built between the 11th and 13th centuries in the face of the advance of Christian armies.

After the Christian conquest, between 1235 and 1239, Géave and the whole Sierra de Segura were controlled by the Order of Santiago's Order and they had to endure the raison and attacks of intimidation of Saracena troops, so this and other torreons acted as a parapet in these war skirmishes and as a shelter for the population.

The chronicles written at the end of the Middle Ages, such as those of Don Francisco de León in 1468 or the Relations of Philip II of 1575, speak of the tower without any reference to a castle or enclosure of important dimensions, so it had to replace the ancient Islamic fortress.

Until 1551 Génave was the village of Segura de la Sierra, from that year on he received the privilege of Villa de orden de Felipe II.

In 1575 Génave is included in the Chancellery district of Granada, it depends on the archbishopric of Toledo and the Kingdom of Murcia before the Cortes, although it is directly under the governorate of Segura de la Sierra.

Description

This tower, surrounded by buildings that cover its bottom, is built in irregular masonry.

It has a square floor of 10.50 m on its side, and in its interior two overlapping rooms are kept covered with half-canyon vaults. To access each of them, as well as the roof, there is a staircase embedded in the thickness of the walls covered with the same type of vault.

The access is now made through a building that houses the Adult Center of the town and which was previously the seat of the City Council.

The tower was declared in 1985 Good of Cultural Interest.

This castle reached the second-rank level at the time of the Constable Iranzo, played an important role in taking sides, like Andújar, on the realistic side when in 1465 the king's enemies placed Jaén, and became famous when, six years later, the warden Diego Frías stopped and ordered a rival of the Constable, Don Fernando de Acuña, son of the Count of Buendía and no less than nephew of the Archbishop of Toledo, to be locked in his tower.
In fact, the castle, of small dimensions, was formed by a cylindrical tower with an almond parapet, as Martin drew it from Ximena Jurado. A stone from the upper tower seems to have an inscription, probably Arabic. There is no trace of this tower in the village. However, the head of the church presents a lock that could correspond to the remains of the castle. This solid semicircular wall of masonry could be reused from a large round tower, sister of those of the Rus and El Marmol castles, in the lands of Baeza.
This turret was declared Good of Cultural Interest in 1985.

Location: To the south of the town, in the natural park of Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas.

Distance: 42 km

Medium: By vehicle, by bike and on foot.

Access route:: On the road A-319 towards La Iruela; at this point, after going 13 km, we will take the Chorro road, then turn away by the horseshoe road leading to Puerto Llano.

The hill of the Poyos de la Mesa is an inverted relief in which the dolomies of the Upper Cretaceous and the limestones of the discordant Miocene on them are affected by a sincerity perfectly visible from the north.

The fold is more tight in the older materials (Cretaceous dolomies), and is more open in the discordants (myocene limestones). Both litological sets flare at the top, very steep, of the relief. Between them there is a well-developed canchal, which marks approximately the axial plane of the fold.

Source: Inventory of Georresources of Andalusia. Environmental Council. Junta de Andalusia.