Precisely, to the cloister of the said convent, Mr Gonzalo Messía Carrillo Fonseca, I Marqués de La Guardia, commissioned the execution of an exempt fountain, crowned by the Magdalena and dated 1577, which has been attributed to Francisco del Castillo "El Mozo," currently located in the courtyard of the Excel. Provincial Council of Jaén. Years earlier, and perhaps to commemorate the appointment as I Marqués de La Guardia, Gonzalo Messía ordered to raise a pilar-abrevadero at the entrance of the population, near the Dominican convent, to serve as a water supply to the neighbors and their animals. This beautiful space, threatened with splendid gardens, over time became a plateau made up of the source itself and a nobility house of silery built according to the date of 1814.

The pilar-abrevadero, in a landscape and built of silary stone, is formed by a wall articulated by two bodies and attic. In the first body there are five caños of bronze out of avenerated hornazas that pour abundant waters on a rectangular pillar, in the second a beautiful frame was carved with hanging cloth with the inscription allusive to the comitant and the date of execution: "This work command to do the Iltmo. Mr. Don Gonzalo Mexia Carrillo, my lord. Year 1566." Throughout this second body there is an internment supported at the ends in Ionian striated columns. In the center of the attic two canes, with the garruches of the Messia family, hold an oval shield on the mould with the crown of Marquis and the following inscription "Plaza de Isabel II Reina Constitucional," with which this place has been known since. In its origin the dogs held the shield with the weapons of Don Gonzalo Messia Carrillo; it is overcome with a fronton with a central relief flanked by fins and crowned with a Cross, to the ends and bearing the cross of Santiago have settled two lying lions (all very redone).

Although the tracist of this beautiful pillar is not known, the stylems incorporated in it, columns with alternating sticks, the scroll with cloth (similar to the carved ones in the City Palace of Ubeda), the molding of the inlet and the cut-off hides of the shield held by the canes point to a possible intervention by Andrés de Vandelvira. Professor Galera Andreu expresses himself in this respect: I do not believe that the public source is not at his hand, despite the reforms (...) to be highlighted by the small scale of the columns attached in an application to the reverse of what was done in the chapel of the Benavides in Baeza. The set was restored by the local workshop school in 1991.

If we look at it from the geological point of view, it is a sphere of sandstone / limestone, which is very eroded by having been buried along with strong water currents, which have contributed to forming an countless number of holes along its entire surface, giving it even more if that character of lunar appearance is there. Leaving aside its geological nature and approaching its symbolic nature, we can say that it is a ritual or sacred stone as we have previously called it, whose name within the archaeological argot is Betilo. This type was used by prehistoric sedentary communities near the Neolithic. Its value was ceremonial or ritual, as they were considered to be divinities associated with the fertility of the land or of the woman. This type of betils were usually placed around the primitive sanctuaries or houses / caves of the community leader and around it were held rituals.

In the case of our "Stone of the Desires," we find that at the top, it has an orifice of deep broth, the purpose of which was to bear the pagan divinities once they take human figure, or later for the Christian communities to place the cross, an unequivocal symbol of Christianity.
This sphere reached Arjona in 1995, a year of terrible drought, in which the fields of Arjona offered a desolate aspect. The same day that the stone arrives in Arjona, a great storm is unleashed that changes the look of these fields, which have been damaged by the terrible drought that has been in this town for months. It is curious how the power of this stone was quickly associated with rituals of Mediterranean cultures that have water as the main rite. That water that makes the earth fertile, that you water the fields and that gives life to the crops, offers us the enigmatic aspect of this stone, whose ancestral function for which it was created, was to symbolize the fertility of the earth, fertility that is achieved only by rain, in this case and thousands of years later the stone exercises that same symbolic power just after reaching its new destination, Arjona.

In the nights of San Juan there are numerous Arjoneros, who come to this stone to practice rituals specific to Mediterranean culture. But this stone not only works on the night of San Juan, from its location in or privileged place of the Plaza de Santa María, is available to the visitor and Arjonero any day of the year. For the visitor's wishes to be fulfilled, in Arjona we have devised a ritual to follow. This ritual consists of placing the 5 fingers of either of the two hands, in holes of similar size, once this ritual has been performed a desire is asked.
From here we want our "Stone of the Desires" to grant you health and happiness.

The Guadiana Menor is a very young river from the geological point of view. Until about 10,000 years ago, its basin was a large salty lake, to which it provided its waters and sediments numerous streams from Sierra Nevada, Filabres and the Macizo de Cazorla and Segura. Its current course arose in an accidental and violent way, perhaps due to the breaking of one of the margins of the lake produced by an earthquake, excavating deep ravines, leaving out the yermas clays, loaded with plaster and salts, rolling edges and marine sands, a means that makes it difficult to survive the living beings that inhabit them.

The depression that bears its name from this river is the most arid area in the province and one of the driest in Europe, recording annual rainfall that very rarely exceeds 250 mm. The consequence is that of a semidesertic, rotational and beautiful landscape, populated by highly specialized Stepparian vegetables to the middle, most herbs and small matas. Its biological uniqueness is enormous, having an endemic character (very small geographical area) more than half of the species present in the area. This proportion is only comparable to the biological exclusivity of the high betic mountain, where we find most of the most well-known endemisms in the Natural Park.

We suggest...

• Make the Desert Route, described in the Tourist Guide of Hinojares.

• Visit the Mirador del Lirio, with stunning views of the valley and the desert of the Natural Park. It is accessed (it is signposted) from the village of Fontanar, which is located about 5 Km from Pozo Alcón.

• Other unique points of this recommended visit are the necropolis ibera de los Castellones de Ceal, next to the village of Ceal, and the Salinilla de Chillar, located very close to Hinojares.

To visit the Picos del Guadiana and to visit the subdesert area of the Natural Park that corresponds to the Valle del Guadiana Menor, we will use the road section of the A-315 that links Bone with Pozo Alcón and Hinojares. The view of the Picos is at the beginning of these, in an enranche of the previous way, about 14 km from Hinojares and 19 km from Pozo Alcón.

We are located in the subdesert area near the Natural Park Sierras de Cazorla, Segura and Las Villas. The geoforms of the valley of the Minor Guadiana, originating from the slow and inexorable erosive processes, are extremely striking. An enclave of great geomorphological interest, proposed as a natural monument: the Picos del Guadiana, stands out. It is a limestone crest where the petreous strata, arranged vertically, emerge from a cone of soft clays, forming a rocky alignment that resembles the teeth of a saw. The Guadiana Menor is a very young river from the geological point of view. The depression that bears its name is the driest area in the province and one of the driest in Europe, recording annual rainfall that very rarely exceeds 250 mm. Its biological uniqueness is enormous, having an endemic character (very small geographical area) more than half of the species present in the area.

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

Distance: 16 km

Medium: In vehicle tourism and on foot.

Access route: By the A-319 in the direction of La Iruela; at this point, after 13 km, we will take the Chorro road, then diverting by a horseshoe road leading to the Port of Tejo.

When you reach the port of Giillo, you leave the path to turn right and climb to the rocky top of the same name, spectacular atalaya with beautiful views in all directions. The fall is made to the port of Giillo, and we will have to pass through an old, ruined shelter where a path of descent begins, this one passes through the Loma de Los Castellones, with beautiful views of the Calar de Juana and the Cabañas, as well as a spectacular sincerity that remains to our left, soon we arrive to the Laguna de Cazorla, a great dolina where we will take a beautiful horseshoe path that is headed towards the Port of Tejo. From here on, a beautiful fall begins on the path of masonry passing under the Banderín and the Cejo de la Mora, with beautiful views towards Los Castellones and Giillo, until reaching the ruins of the Forest House of Prado Redondo, beautiful corner with a fountain.

Information and Comments:

• The kiosco-bar is temporarily closed until further notice, by works of improvement in the installation.
• The barbecues area can only be used when Environment gives the order that there is no danger of fire.

Since then, local associations and municipalities have begun to promote this interesting heritage. In 1999, because of the uniqueness, abundance and quality of this industrial mining landscape, heritage experts described the area in the British press as "the best kept secret in Europe" (Europe's best kept secret).

In the entire mining region, there are remains of high interest industrial archaeology, some unique examples in the world. This scattered set of buildings, railway stations, machine houses, chimneys, cabries and roads explain the history of one of the areas of southern Europe in which the Industrial Revolution took place, where English, Belgian, French and Spanish communities lived together. This combination of history and the use of natural resources is an excellent pretext for visiting the landscape of the chimneys, the landscape that welcomes visitors who arrive in Andalusia from the north.