Linares, Province of Jaén, Andalusia, Spain

🇪🇸 Linares is a city located in the Andalusian province of Jaén, Spain. It is considered the second-most important city in that province. The altitude is 419 metres and the total area of the municipality is 195.15 square kilometres. It is located on kilometer 120 on the Valencia-Córdoba highway and is 51 km from the province capital, Jaén.

Location Located in the Central-Western part of the province, the city of Linares is the second-biggest city in the province after the capital, Jaén. It is also the commercial capital of Sierra Morena, as well as the referential city in the surrounding areas.

Geography The city term is orientated in a NE-SW direction, giving the transition in altitude decreasing between the higher northern area of Sierra Morena; being Paño Pico (552 m) the highest area of the municipal term; and the lowest area, the Guadalimar Valley in the South-Western limit, with an altitude of (318 m).

History Around the middle of the nineteenth century Linares became an important mining centre with lead mines nearby. The smelting of lead, the manufacture of lead sheets and pipes, and the production of by-product silver from the lead ores led to a significant population increase. The 6,000 inhabitants in 1849 became 36,000 in 1877. This commercial and industrial growth brought the concession of the title of city in 1875.

Economy The lead mines of Linares were in almost interrupted activity from pre-Roman times until the 1990s. There were also lead smelters and gunpowder, dynamite and rope factories as auxiliary to the mining industry. Currently, the mines of Linares are protected as cultural heritage.

Santana Motor, the former producer of all-terrain vehicles for the Spanish Army which was recently shut down due to the economic recession. There is also a factory producing trains (CAF), another one producing components for wind turbines (Grupo Daniel Alonso y Gamesa), and a beet sugar plant (Azucareras Reunidas de Jaen S.A.), which now produces biodiesel from colza oil, palm oil, soybeans, and sunflower oil.

Transport The city is well connected to the rest of Spain. The Autovia de Andalucía (A-4), NIV Madrid-Cádiz, is located 12 km (7 miles) to the west at Bailén. The (A-32) highway, NIV Linares-Albacete, also traverses through the city.

There is a railroad station at Linares-Baeza, with lines connecting Madrid and Cádiz, and Madrid-Granada-Almería. The railroad has also a cargo deck.

Near to Linares is the ancient town of Castulo, which dates to antiquity and earned much of its revenue from the lead mines located there. It was at Castulo that Carthaginian general Hannibal married the local Iberian princess Himilce on the eve of the Second Punic War.

Education The city has also a recent university campus known as the Scientific-Technological Campus, opened in 2015, that offers a wide range of engineering studies, belonging to the University of Jaén since 1 July 1993.

Linares is also the place where the annual Linares chess tournament was held.