The town that left its most indigenous mark
The archaeological remains of the Iberians are of exceptional quality in Baena
In the heart of Turdetania, the municipality of Baen stands out for the numerous sites where the Iberian culture plays a predominant role. The cities that one day rose in Torreparedones, the Cerro del Minguillar or the Cerro de los Molinillos, to cite a few examples, were already of considerable importance before the arrival of the Romans.
Baena It is one of the Andalusian municipalities where the Iberian culture left testimonies of great relevance and proof of this is that, together with the Lady of Elche and the Lady of Baza, the lioness of Iponuba or Baena, which is exhibited in the National Archaeological Museum, integrates the known as the national Iberian triangle. This type of zoomorphic sculpture, of which there are other samples in the Ibero Art Museum of Jaén, in Córdoba and in the Historical Museum in Baena, are, without a doubt, one of the most significant examples of an indigenous culture that had a great development in the territory. Among the numerous sites of this period that are located in the Municipality, the one corresponding to the ancient city of Ituci, today the Torreparedones Archaeological Park, is, without a doubt, the most important. The two sanctuaries from which a large number of votive offerings have been extracted. the walled perimeter of which a large part of its layout is preserved or the city’s own urban planning that was respected even after the colonization of Rome, allow us to approach an ancestral past that is complemented by the rich collection of ceramics, weapons and other many vestiges of this period that are displayed in the local Museum.
