Andalusia's forgotten Renaissance capital — Vandelvira's palaces and a Parador in a 16th-century plaza
Úbeda is a small city in the province of Jaén in Andalusia whose Renaissance historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, paired with neighbouring Baeza 9 km away. The Sacra Capilla del Salvador (1536–1559), designed by Andrés de Vandelvira, is the masterwork of Spanish Renaissance architecture; the Palacio de Vázquez de Molina opposite is now the Parador of Úbeda, offering rooms inside a 16th-century palace. The city's olive-grove setting and lack of mass tourism make it one of Andalusia's most rewarding stops.
Úbeda was taken from the Moors by Fernando III of Castile in 1233, and a building boom followed under the patronage of Francisco de los Cobos y Molina, secretary of state to Emperor Charles V. Cobos funded the Sacra Capilla del Salvador and attracted noble families who commissioned palaces around the Plaza de Vázquez de Molina, creating the finest Renaissance ensemble in Spain. The city's decline after the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 paradoxically preserved the Renaissance fabric untouched.