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The location of Cazorla and La Iruela (Jaen - Spain), are not the most propitious for a human settlement, so the archaeological sites are quite limited.
With the arrival and development of the Muslim world, the territory was settled from the Caliphate period, but especially during the Taifa and Almohad periods. To have documentary references we must wait until the description of the conquests by Rodrigo Ximénez de Rada.
It is believed that the Ivy Castle was of Christian origin. The constructive elements that could appear to be Islamic, could be the result of the master builders and workers that worked in its construction. As for the Castillo de las Cinco Esquinas or Salvatierra Castle, it has been documented that it is a fortress with two different phases. A Muslim one with three enclosures and ashlar masonry on its walls, perhaps from the Almohad period (12th-13th centuries). Another Christian one that is attached to the previous one by raising an irregular masonry wall and a large tower with a pentagonal floor plan and two heights, has ribbed vaults and pointed arches. Possibly from the 14th century In the rest of Cazorla we do not find a single remaining material or constructive element from the Muslim period.
Therefore, we must imagine a small fortress at the top of the hill of Salvatierra, which would fulfill the functions of control of the wide space that it dominates. From the presence and Christian incursions in this part of Al Andalus, it would become one more element of the border line in front of the Christian lands to the north of the Guadalquivir.
The Castle of La Iruela, is located at the top of an abrupt cliff. El Eruela, as it is mentioned in certain medieval texts, was originally a modest Arab farmhouse that, from the eleventh century, had a protective wall and a small fortification on a promontory for the safety of the peasants. Later, it would become a rock castle, small in size but very difficult to take.
Towards 1231, the lands granted to the bishopric of Toledo, as a prize from Fernando III to the collaboration of Ximénez de Rada in the takeover of the "holy king" in Castile and Leon, include La Iruela, becoming part of the Adelantamiento de Cazorla. His successor, the Infante Don Sancho de Castilla, son of King Fernando III, by structuring the Adelantamiento with Cazorla as its capital, made La Iruela his village, breaking the previous level of equality between both towns.
The measure was never accepted willingly by La Iruela and, on the occasion of the civil war between Pedro I and Enrique II (1362 to 1369), while Cazorla was positioned against Archbishop Gómez Manrique and in favour of Pedro I, La Iruela took sides with Enrique de Trastámara, who was the winner. The archbishop decided to punish Cazorla by returning the autonomy to La Iruela, to which he granted the title of villazgo (1370). Two months later, under pressure from Cazorla, Archbishop Manrique himself backed down and La Iruela returned to its previous status as a village.
In 1378, the archbishop don Pedro Tenorio granted independence to La Iruela again.
In the 16th century, there was a change of ownership of the lands of the Cobos or Camarasa family. With the concession made by the emperor to his secretary, this patron and his son remodeled the old medieval structure of Cazorla, the design and construction of the Plaza Santa Maria, building the vault over the river and raised above the first large religious temple of this city.
With the return of the property of these lands to Toledo, the second urban transformation takes place: establishment of convent orders that will build monastic dependence, structuring what would be the Cazorla of the 17th century and centuries to come almost until the middle of the 20th.
Since Philip IV, the suppression of the lordships and the sale of these, meant that much of the new advanced were aristocratic families who used these possessions to try to get rich, falling the localities in a progressive abandonment.
With the disentailments, the Toledan church lost its material property.
During the French occupation (19th century), some convents were looted and other buildings were burnt, among which the little that remained of the Church of Santa Maria stands out. The courage and bravery shown by its inhabitants in the face of the French invaders earned Cazorla the title of Ciudad y Villa Muy Noble y Muy Leal (Very Noble and Very Loyal Town and Village).
During the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th century, these lands were declared a maritime province and their forests were exploited for shipbuilding in Cartagena.
From the 19th century onwards, the ruralisation of the area is generalised and by this time the lawsuits initiated in the 14th century with La Iruela, for the division of the common land, continue.
