The Arroyo del Vidrio divides the Garden into two, and passing through a wooden bridge with eastern air, we reach a natural area where we can know the plants integrated into their natural habitat, some of them in danger of extinction. This part has a circular path around the channel, where, in addition to vegetables, more than forty species of birds can be observed, as well as squirrels and amphibians. This ravine is the ideal framework to begin to contemplate in situ the particular contrast of the area, from a lookout located at the highest part of the tour.

The slope of the right margin, in umbria, is occupied by a pineapple pineapple (Pinus nigra ssp. salzmanii). In front, in the dolomitic herring where the parking is located, the black pine (Pinus pinaster) is the only tree able to overcome the presence of magnesium on the ground. Next, in the rocky carasol, the carrasco pine (Pinus halepensis), the most characteristic Mediterranean pinacea of arid areas, dwells on very permeable substrates, where drought becomes extreme. The fact that the three native pine species of this Natural Park naturally coexist in such a small space, deletes the special ecological characteristics of this area.

We suggest...

• The Botanical Garden of El Hornico, marked as the Collection of Autotonous Plants in the public-use organization chart of the Natural Park, is currently managed by the municipality of Pozo Alcón and is only open to the public in times of maximum tourist influx. For an organized and scheduled visit it is best to contact the municipal tourist information point (Tfno. 953 739 005)

• Next to the botanist is the El Hornico Nature Hall, which develops environmental education activities within the garden and in its nearby environment. It is an ideal place to organize school and group activities.

The Botanical Garden of the Hornico is 9 km from Pozo Alcón and 17 km from Hinojares. From Pozo Alcón you have to take the A-326, up the Avenida de la Bolera, direction to Castril. By passing the campsite de la Bolera and the km 7, we take a detour that comes to our left and that borders the Forest House of la Bolera (it is marked as an entrance to El Hornico). On an unasphalt road, 2 km later, we take another turn to the left, after passing a bridge, which leads us to the park of the Garden a few meters later.

It was built on the primitive Mosque, documented by the Arab geographer Al-Himyari, which mentions that it was "three ships supported by marble columns."

His primitive advocation was that of Santa Maria, not knowing what the primitive building was, only that the Altar Mayor was oriented to the west and its main door to the north, next to the so-called "Source of the Place." The first documentary data on the works of the present temple dates back to 1547, bringing the stone from the quarry of Bedmar. In 1569 the Sunday Master of Uriarte worked on it. From 1582 to 1589 the work was carried out by Juan Vizcaino. In 1591, the Gaspar and Francisco de Aranda brothers were mentioned as builders and singers, building the central ship with their six side chapels with cassette vaults, so to the use of Vandelvira, who was the supervisor of the works of the temples of the Diocese. The whole set is of Renaissance-purist style.

In 1613 the construction of the Tower began, according to the trace of Juan de Aranda Salazar in a baroque style. Three shields belonging to the Bishops are carved in stone: Sancho Dávila, Cardinal Moscoso and Fernando Andrade, in the work of the Masters Francisco de Zamora, Alonso Galan, Andrés and Diego Guerrero, being completed in 1661 by Euphrassio López de Rojas, a shield of Sancho Dávila is found inside. One of its four bells is 1794.

In 1729 he repaired the header or Major Chapel by Juan de Consuegra. From 1771 to 1780 is built the current cruise, Capilla Mayor and dome of the Evangelists in neoclassical style with details of the rocky in the dome that was built by Pedro Fernández, Manuel and Juan Armenteros. In 1799, the pulpits and graderies were placed and the construction of the Main Fachada in neoclassical style was started by Manuel Caballero, who finished it, along with the choir in 1801. According to some historians, the façade is one of the best in the province because of its irous proportions. In 1864 the Capels of Expiration and Baptism were built. In 1877 the construction work of the Chapel of San José, directed by the architect Pedro Pascual Samaniego, with elegant orange half, was completed and decorated with interesting frescoes from 1915. From 1989 to 1992 the temple suffered a profound restoration by adding elements that further enhance its interior as several altarpieces in Macael marble and stone, the magnificent Reja and silery of the Chapel of San José, lighting, etc.

Little one was to be the early church for the Council to take the agreement of enlargement and to extend it, as stated in the Act of Cabildo of 11 November 1545: "Attend to the neçania that woes that the church and temple is enlarged and enlarged as the people who come to the dibines oficiços to the church do not take within it (...)." These works were not to solve the problems, and by 1564 the Council decided to build a new temple according to the traces of Andrés de Vandelvira, master of the factory of the Cathedral of Jaén and also director of the parish factories of the Diocese. The agreement is reflected in the Act of Cabildo of 6 January 1564: "Let another yglesia be built and fagged again that is wider and better, because the one that is now very narrow and partly working (...) will be built the new church where the best paresçiere to be made healthier (...) and will be traced by Andres de Vandelvira, master of works of this bishopric (...)."

Neither outside nor inside are structures kept in plain sight that remind us of the Vandelvirian architecture, in large part by the above-mentioned radical interventions practiced in the temple, which continued to preserve its primitive location. A more detailed analysis of its factory and an inspection of hidden areas provide us with certain architectural elements that can support the partition of Vandelvira in the works, case the remains of the run-in conserved between the deck or roof and the current vaults. It is to be thought that because of its unique disposition, exposed to the seasons and winds, that church suffered a serious setback in its original architecture, which, after strong restorations or modifications, was covert or integrated into which we currently contemplate.

In any case, certain works were completed in the temple in 1587: tower staircase, general enlucido, repairs on the roof. At the end of the 17th century, according to Professor Galera Andreu, Master Francisco Landeras made a modest swordsman, which is not the one currently preserved, because this is the result of the works of the 19th century. In 1837, according to the report of Juan Tuñón, master of public works of Baeza, it was necessary to strengthen the silery on the west side, to fix the corner on the midday side and to do the whole roof. Years later, specifically on January 26, 1860, Antonio López, a master of works at the Cathedral of Baeza, made another report, in which there is a need for a number of damage to the walls, soleras of the chorus ship, straps of the armor of the roof, roof of the sacristy; as far as the bell tower is concerned, he says: "The bell tower is necessary to do it again from its plant (...) by the construction of that bell tower that will have six and a half rods of width and nine and fourth of high (...) its cost is eleven thousand and two hundred reais."

The conditions are also inserted: that the bulk of the walls of the bell tower will be of rod and half a fourth in frame, and its brick and mixture factory. By 1866, the architect José María Cuenca, states that the building was in very poor condition, although some works had already been done. In 1876 there was a record of new payments for works (including the general encalado of the temple, the fees for the direction of the architect Vicente Serrano Salaberri, etc.), which amounted to 26,000 reais.

All these works, plus the necessary and continuous general maintenance, have determined their current configuration: a living room church with three ships, with vaults down the central and half canyon the sides. Special mention should be made of the arcosolinos of the 17th century that flank the presbytery, with simple classical altars crowned with the blasphons of the Sánchez Barrionuevo.

OTHER ARTISTICAL MANIFESTIONS

In the side chapels of the cruise, the shields of the Sánchez Barrionuevo (S. XVII) are kept on the plaster. The paintings of the disciplinant procession of the Christ of Veracruz are interesting. The most valuable piece is its mudejar baptismal pile, made of green glazed ceramic with a gothic inscription between sogued moulds, which is closely related to that of the church of Bartolomé de Jaén. The baptismal pile (1750), decorated with a threaded serpent, is interesting.

Also preservedan oil on canvaswith the iconography ofEcce Homoof the 17th century: a sitting Christ that responds to the baroque aesthetics of the dark, another 18th century oil of the Divine Pastor of popular theme and great chromatic contrast and of the 20th century, a wooden size of a Crucified, with careful anatomical study.

Built in overturned and painted masonry, its simple, small-sized facade speaks a classicist language: a slight step emphasizes the access door, composed of a half-point arch on imposts, flanked by Tuscan pilasters, which give way to an internment completed on a triangular front with bones on each side. On the ledge of this first body is raised an airous spadagna, with a pyramidal structure on three levels, with pinacullos at the ends and half-point holes for bells. The sword underlines its hierarchy, making it the highest building in the square.

Inside it is a single drawer ship, covered with a half-barrel vault and double lunetes on the sides. The presbyterium is opened with a tural arc and also hornains made up of Tuscan columns, empleamento and triangular fronton are observed. This space is covered with a vault of edges and is illuminated by two large, bone-shaped windows. The header is presided over by the sculptural image of the patron saint, St. Helena, between dogrous columns that support an internment and a curved fronton.

Its covers are of simple structure but of great ornamental interest. The main one, of the XVII, opens with a half-point arch, between Ionian columns, geometrically decorated with mannerist-style breaks. In the center a hornadine houses a sculpture of the Immaculate. It has two other covers, both with half-point bow, the northern cover of 1570, with flamboyant care at the ends of the cornice, which is attributed to Francisco del Castillo "el Mozo" and his brother Benito; and the southern cover, dated 1620, with oval shield, aletons and pinnacle.

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.

He dedicated himself to St. John the Baptist and the first cleric to serve it was Michael of Biedma. During the 17th century the need to expand that small temple was experienced, and even the insignia architect Eufrassio López de Rojas came to realize a simple project, which was not carried out due to lack of means.

In May 1785 the vice-president and factory butler Manuel de Arredondo requested the reform and expansion of the temple given its poor condition. In June of that year, the master of works Ramón Maroto issued a detailed report on the precise works to secure the ancient area and expand the temple. The cost was estimated at Rat 11,718.

The works were authorized and started by the architect Miguel de Aranderas, who was at that time one of Jaén's most accredited. The works were carried out, among others, by the singers Agustín Peinado, Manuel Caballero, Juan de Armenteros, Juan de Ortega and Pedro Caballero. The new temple was opened to worship in 1798. In 1829, he was redesigned by the Jiennese architect Manuel Paedilla. In the events of the Civil War, the parish was seized on 3 August 1936 and was dismantled and lost its small but interesting movable heritage.

In general terms it retains its primitive arrangement typical of the mannerist religious architecture: a single ship with small hornacino chapels marked on the walls; a short cruise covered with a half-orange dome; an open chapel on the side for Our Lady of the Dolores and chorus at the foot of the temple.

It retains images of Jacinto Higueras (Virgin of the Rosary and Our Father Jesus) and a small but select collection of goldsmiths. The main facade is very simple and its lines are in harmony with that of the nearby Conistory House.