The historical village centre of Iznájar contains several museums that showcase the cultural history and traditions of the area. These include the Museum of Implements of Tillage and Popular Traditions, the Museum of Arts and Crafts, and the Naïf Sculptures Museum dedicated to the works of Antonio Cañizares. Dominating the village is the unfinished Parish Church of Santiago Apostol and the iconic Castle of Iznájar, which began construction in the 8th century and has historical significance as a former stronghold. The castle and surrounding neighbourhood provide beautiful views over the surrounding landscape.

1. THE HISTORICAL VILLAGE CENTRE OF IZNÁJAR
The Arch, which is the entrance to this
neighbourhood today, was the door of the
‘medina’ of Iznájar in another time. For acceding
to it, not only it was necessary to cross the
mentioned door but it had to be crossed the two
ones that were located in a tower which
disappeared in the 1930s. This entrance is bent
and it is easy to defend from the ‘adarves’ located
into both sides of it, which turned it into an
impregnable fortress practically.
In the entry of the enclosure, on the right, it
is found the Municipal Arts Centre that is the central office of the local
museums.
It has been tried to collect a considerable part of the ethnographic
and cultural patrimony of the municipal area, with the Museum of
Implements of Tillage and Popular traditions, which was created in
1996 by municipal initiative: implements and
agricultural tools, and the traditional craftsmanship
or ceramic that recreate the ways of life in the
farmhouses and country houses in other times.
Close to the previous one, we can find the
Museum of Arts and Crafts that was created in
2007. It has been
paid a tribute to
those missing trades
recreating the
interior of a
harness-maker’s
shop, of a traditional barber’s shop and also
of a forge of iron-works. They were trades
that were a sign of identity of the population of
Iznájar.
The Departmen
of Culture of
Iznájar’s City Hall
and the donations of
the families of the
village, which are
directed by Rafael
Quintana, have made

2. possible the visitors can revive a period of the cultural history of the
municipal area through the museums of arts and crafts. It shows the way of
life and how the everyday existence in the village of Iznájar was until the
modern ways of life were pushing aside to this patrimonial wealth that is
exposed in them.
The visit to the museums is completed with the Museum of
Sculptures Naïf “Antonio Cañizares”, which has reserved an auditory
from 2005 where is exposed an everlasting sample of the work of the
singular and missing artist from Iznájar.
Antonio Cañizares “El Perlo” was an authentic maker of religious
Naïf images and for this reason, the City Hall of his natal village has
dedicated a museum where his art can be appreciated and enjoyed by
everybody.
“Sacristan of Iznájar’s figurines do not limit themselves to possess
freshness and grace, they have bite to themselves; they are authentic works
of art because Antonio Cañizares is a real Naïf artist, although he is not
aware of it.”
Ángel Aroca
“If the sacred encourages the ingenious artists’ heart (denomination
of the Naïf), Antonio Cañizares, who is a maker of humble figurines of
mud, brushes the railings of heaven”.
Pablo García Baena

3. “Art is dying some time ago of being so wise and so old. For this
reason, Antonio Cañizares’ creations, which are made of refined crudeness
and of exquisite unkilfulness, are received as a message that comes from to
us from the authentic and wild thing”.
“…he was losing the respect to the images to which cleaned the
powder or repainted the chipped ones and he even dared to shape angels,
virgins, crucifixes and saints in order to create a kind of parallel church to
the official one. A pigmea church of infantile and wonderful worship in
which he reproduced too others invented and not less miraculous images,
adding them his personal graceful”.
José Hierro
Inside the fortified enclosure, on
the right, we can find the “Patio de las
Comedias” whose name comes from
the theatrical representations that were
made in this place in another time. At
the back, there is a small viewing-point
close to one of the towers of the
enclosure where you can find on it an
image of “San Rafael”.
The Parish Church of “Santiago
Apóstol” which is in the highest part of the villa,
dominates with its imposing masses of stone
work. It is an unfinished work that was
developed from 1945 to 1638 and that
constituted an ambitious Renaissance project
whose authorship is attributed to Hernán Ruiz
“el Jóven”.
A wide restoration during the year 2005 to
the year 2008 has returned its magnificence. This
restoration was carried out
from the Bishopric with the collaboration of the City
Hall and the employment agency. The Parish Church
projects its image on the peculiar cemetery of Iznájar
which is configured as a small village built with the
limitations imposed by the place, in which its drops
and still slopes are saved with small borders and stairs.
Close to the Parish Church, there is a peaceful
square called “Rafael Alberti” that is surrounded with
orange trees. In this square, we find a mosaic of

4. glazed tiles in which can be read the poem “Torre de Iznájar” from the
book “La Arboleda Perdida” that remembers Rafael Alberti’s return to the
village of Iznájar in 1989 after the visits that he realized in his youth.
In the same square of the castle,
square of Alín Ben Cacín, there was an
old granary that was built in times of
Charles III and was reconverted to
Municipal Library. This library is
valued both, its number and quality of
volumes and by its architecture.
In the highest part of the “Barrio
de La Villa” it is found the Castle of
Iznájar which is symbol and genesis of the
village. It began its building about the half of the
8th century, probably by Spanish-Goth builders
and it continued with successive reconstructions
and extensions until the 15th century. This castle,
which is of Arabic Origin, gives name to the
village; the name derives from the noun “hisn”
(castle) and from the adjective “al-ashar”
(happy).
It was not until the 10th century when was
formed the floor that the castle presents
nowadays. In the 11th century, the walls, which
surround the court of weapons, were raised and it was built the first
enclosure that was reinforced in the ‘nazarí’ period, including the current
“Barrio de La Villa”.

5. The second fortified enclosure, which is already ‘nazarí’ completely,
was accommodated to the area for its use and its buildings were reduced to
the doors and on which the village is put up.
The first historical news of the castle dates from the second half of
the 9th century due to Umar Ben Hafsún’s ‘muladí’ revolt. During this
period, Iznájar changed hands several times and its population was very
punished. It was the fear of the reprisals what led the inhabitants of the
village to beheading their governor Fadl Ben Salama (he was considered
the founder of Iznájar by many people) and to sending his head to the Emir
Abd Allah as a sign of submission. In this way, they avoided the reprisals
against the population that had been carried out in previous revolts.
Fernando III El Santo’s Christian Reconquest would not come to
Iznájar which remained joined to the kingdom of Granada until the first
half of the 15th century. Its frontier situation took the village to frequent
periods of war. The definitive incorporation to the kingdom of Castilla
takes place during the monarchy of Juan II and later by 1468 it was created
the Viscounty of Iznájar; Diego Fernández De Córdoba (Lord of Baena and
Count of Cabra) received the jurisdiction and the dominion of this village
by his adhesion to the Monarch Enrique IV. This title of nobility belongs in
force nowadays to the inheritors “Fernández de Córdoba”.
The castle was turned into Duke of
Sesa’s manager’s housing in the 18th century
who kept this function until the 20th century.
The castle was acquired to his last owners
(The Count of Revilla and his brothers) by the
Town Hall in 1991 when it was part of the
local patrimony.
After the archaeological intervention realized by the “Junta de
Andalucía” the works of restoration in the monument started. The works of
recovery of the historical patrimony, which were begun in March 2007, were
consequence of the municipal investment, the collaboration of the “Diputación
Provincial de Córdoba” through the “Programme of Recovery of Historical

6. Patrimony” and of the signed agreement
through the called “Cultural Found of the
1%” within the approved proceeding by the
Department responsible for public works,
buildings, etc and by the Department of
Culture.
Behind the Parish Church and the
castle, it appears a wonderful viewing-point
Muhamad Ben Cabena’s square. This viewing-point is possible due to
the situation of the “Barrio de la Villa” that is located in the highest part of
the hill where the village is placed.
In this square, the visitors will find a
great peace and they will delight in the
sights of the reservoir and the filled hills
of olive groves.
Both, the “Barrio de la Villa” and
the viewing-point of the hillside of the
castle have been a source of inspiration
along the times.
“Iznájar, which is straightened in the hills, with a Moorish castle, an
immense decayed millstone that raises yet on the mouth of an abyss the
crenellated power of its towers”.
Rafael Alberti, -La Arboleda Perdida-