AT A GLANCE

Why go?

Perched atop the Cerro del Cueto like a crown of rammed earth, the Castillo de Baños de la Encina—known to historians as Burgalimar Castle—is one of the best-preserved caliphal fortresses in all of Europe. Built in 967 AD under the orders of the Córdoba caliph Al-Hakam II, its fifteen square towers still rise above the town of Baños de la Encina in the province of Jaén, visible from dozens of kilometres across the olive-studded Campiña.↗↗↗

What makes this fortress exceptional is not just its age but its material. Entirely constructed in tapial—rammed earth, lime and crushed stone layered inside wooden moulds—its walls have outlasted far grander stone castles that have crumbled over the centuries. Scholars consider it the finest surviving example of this construction tradition anywhere in the world. From the ramparts you can survey Sierra Morena to the north and the vast olive sea of Jaén's Campiña to the south, the very landscape this garrison was built to command.↗↗