The museum of local painter Rafael Zabaleta is probably the most well-known place in Quesada. Apart from works by Zabaleta, the museum houses a collection of modern art with works by Tápies and Miró, among others.

Until 1691, Santiago was a hamlet of Segura de la Sierra known as El Hornillo (the Little Oven) because the founders gathered around an oven where they baked bread. The town has a special atmosphere and a friendly deposition towards visitors owing to its isolation in a remote area of Jaén province. The climate there is more similar to the plains of Castile than to Andalusia and it often snows in winter. Orchards and vegetable gardens surround the town, as well as sizeable walnut trees that can be spotted from several viewpoints. The town is considered the ‘capital’ of the Nature Reserve’s livestock area, where sheep farming has played a decisive role in shaping the countryside and local customs.

The origin of the current town of Santo Tomé was the former castle’s keep, all that remains of the 14th century fortification that the archbishop of Toledo, who governed these lands, had built to defend them. The tower was converted into the belfry of the parish church of Santo Tomás Apóstol. The history of Santo Tomé goes much further back in time, however.

If you dream of a small town with whitewashed houses built on a hill leading to a castle and surrounded by forests and mountains, that place has a name: Segura de la Sierra. It is a town to gaze upon from afar and from which to look far away. A place to linger in every nook and cranny.

In Siles you are close to two Nature Reserves. It is a good starting point to explore the north end of the Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Nature Reserve. However, it is also very close to the legendary source of the Mundo river (whose name in Spanish, Nacimiento del Mundo, means ‘the birth of the world’) and its impressive waterfall, in the nearby Los Calares del Río Mundo y de la Sima Nature Reserve. Siles, population 2000, is located at a strategic convergence of the mountains, olive groves and small fertile plains in a very diversified landscape. It is also the main entrance to the Nature Reserve, for those who approach it from the east.

This small town belongs to the El Condado region but most of the municipal district lies within the Nature Reserve. The most emblematic place in town is the large Plaza de los Caños square, where two large houses stand, and where eight streets converge, making it a point of reference for the locals and visitors alike. It owes its name to the fountain with seven spouts that presides it.

Torres de Abanchez, population 1000, lies at the foot of a mountain known as El Castillo (the Castle), where some remains of La Yedra castle still stand, overlooking the Onsares river valley. This position makes the town a splendid balcony to look out over the Nature Reserve’s highest peaks and the towns of Siles, Orcera and Segura de la Sierra. It is essential to enjoy the views from the square where you’ll also find the church, the town hall and the splendid medieval Torre del Homenaje (the keep), listed as a historical monument

The most attractive monument in this great olive-growing town is the church of La Asunción, designed by architect Andrés de Vandelvira, built in the 16th and 17th century, and listed as a National Monument in 1931. The building stands on the ruins of an old Moorish lookout tower and is surprisingly spacious, with beautiful, unique vaults. Inside, the parish Museum of La Asunción houses works from several local churches, and others donated by the brotherhoods and the parishioners, including 17th-19th century gold and silver works, prayer books, bibles and chasubles.

The centre of this olive-growing town is the Plaza Mayor (main square), surrounded by modernist houses and with a charming bandstand, a testimony to the town’s long musical tradition and highly popular municipal band.

This village of a little over 500 inhabitants located at the northernmost end of the Nature Reserve lies in the ideal setting to enjoy very diverse scenery: to the south and the east you can see the forest-clad mountains of the Nature Reserve and of Alcaraz, the latter in Albacete province; and to the north and the west, the mountains and pasture lands at the easternmost end of the Sierra Morena mountains. Between the two lie the badlands, with deep gullies and earth of surprising colours.