Ubeda travel guide

Entering this sprawling agricultural service town there’s little hint of the glories awaiting you as you approach the more venerable centre; it’s only when you’ve descended to the older part that you realize you’re in a staggering ensemble of Renaissance architecture unparallelled (except in nearby Baeza) in Andalucía. Ubeda (stress on the first syllable) is slowly beginning to receive the attention it deserves, and its assortment of delightful palacio hotels makes it all the more appealing.

Known to the Romans as Betula because of its location near the river Betis (Guadalquivir), it became a walled Moorish town with important pottery and esparto (woven grass) industries that have persisted to the present day. Squabbling among the noble families led Fernando and Isabel to demolish the town’s defences in 1503; once things settled, the city became rich on the export of its textiles. Much of the town’s cachet in those days came from Francisco de los Cobos, minister to Carlos V and a man of huge influence and power in Spain. Ubeda has a more austere and less intimate feel than Baeza, partly due to the size and quantity of the palaces, which were very much intended as statements of position and wealth, although many were never lived in by their owners.