Landscape and history, the great beauty of Los Alcornocales Reserve. The renovation of the castle

In a landscape of extraordinary beauty, the buildings that make up the castle outline a scenario of complex and intense interrelationships, inside and outside the boundaries of the aggregate, which give the patrimonial enclave a great potential

In the last decade, several important archaeological research campaigns have been undertaken, which have initiated the initial phase of restoration of the site; this involves the eastern sector of the castle: the facade on which the urban profile of Jimena stands out and which has been left in a state of poor conservation

The renovation works follow a minimum criterion of intervention while restoring the value of the antiquity of the brick buildings and the singularity of the complex.  Once revealed the different historical layers appear as a new layer connecting the significant elements of the castle: towers, walls, cisterns, basins, houses, etc..

Camouflaged with the terrain and landscape, the new paths meander between the foundations of the walls of the Roman Oba and the medieval Xemina, from the Islamic Gate or Clock Gate to the Alcazar, introducing a necessary order into the complex geometry that the archaeological remains defined on the hillside. The visit extends outside as a further itinerary of the Natural Park and discovers unprecedented views of the castle itself, the city and the landscape. Connecting the natural paths with the historical path that rises from the urban plot, the castle is transformed into the actual entrance of the Natural Reserve of Los Alcornocales