Ancient Roman town located in the Countryside of the Guadalquivir Depression, a region of great fertility and abundance.
Etymology
The name Baena comes from Baius, the name of a Roman landowner, which during the Arab period transformed into Bayyana. In turn, it is the transcription of the name of one of the many Roman villas that survived until the Visigothic period and which, in the 7th century, the Arab-Berber invaders chose as a settlement, fortifying it. In the municipality of Baena, there is an abundance of Iberian-Roman remains (Torreparedones, Izcar, Cerro Minguillar, etc.).
Prehistory and Antiquity
There are numerous archaeological testimonies that highlight human settlement in the area since prehistoric times, with a particular emphasis on sites from the Metal Age, as well as the cultural legacy left by the Iberians, with many religious-funerary findings (Archaeological Park of Torreparedones), among which is the so-called Lioness of Baena, preserved in the National Archaeological Museum. This sculpture was found on the Minguillar hill, where it is believed that Iponoba, an Iberian city cited by Pliny the Elder, was located.”
It is not definitively proven that the Romans distinguished this population centre with the name Julia Regia or Virtus Iulia for the help it provided to Julius Caesar in the Battle of Munda against the sons of Pompey.
Perhaps its current location is also a result of the Muslim civilization: Baena relocated in an effort to establish a stronghold against the enemy, creating the Almedina, within which they built the castle and the mosque (the last part of which is thought to possibly be the first section of the Church of Santa María la Mayor). Around it, a settlement formed by military leaders and local nobility emerged.
