Aracena

Aracena grew around a hill in the Sierra Morena of southwestern Iberia. Archaeological remains on the hill show an Andalusi settlement from the tenth to thirteenth centuries. After its conquest by Portuguese forces and the Order of the Hospital, a castle was built over the earlier settlement in the mid-thirteenth century.

The 1297 Treaty of Alcañices placed Aracena under Castile and the jurisdiction of Seville. In the later fifteenth century the town expanded outside its walls down the hillside. The castle gradually lost its military role in the early sixteenth century, while the adjoining priory church developed over several building phases.