Historic house in Baeza
Also known as Seminario de San Felipe Neri
FreeCosts nothing to visit.
A seventeenth-century Baroque seminary in the UNESCO old town of Baeza, famous for a facade covered in vítores: the painted inscriptions students left to mark their graduations, traditionally daubed in red pigment said to be mixed with bull’s blood. The building now houses the International University of Andalusia, and the facade and courtyard are free to see from the street.
For budget travelers it is one more free stop in a town built for them. The painted facade and the courtyard cost nothing to see, and it sits right beside the Jabalquinto Palace and opposite the Old University of Baeza with its preserved Antonio Machado Lecture Hall. Add the Baeza Cathedral a few minutes away and the architectural core of Baeza is one short, free walk. Come in spring or autumn to dodge the inland heat, and pair the stop with near-twin Ubeda for a low-cost overnight.
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Other places worth the walk, and what each one costs.
A 16th-century triumphal arch attached to the Puerta de Jaen on the Plaza del Populo, the Lions Fountain square in the heart of Baeza. It is free to see at any hour, set into the old city gate rather than fenced off as a paid monument, so it costs nothing to walk through and photograph.
A preserved classroom inside the Old University of Baeza where the poet Antonio Machado taught French between 1912 and 1919. The room is kept the way he left it, down to the wooden desks and the lectern, so it reads less like a museum exhibit and more like a working hall that the teacher just stepped out of.
The Renaissance cathedral on Plaza de Santa Maria, the dominant monument of UNESCO-listed Baeza and built over the town's former main mosque. The square out front and its exterior cost nothing to admire, so even a no-spend visit gets the best of it.
One of the few surviving Romanesque churches in Andalusia, dating to the 13th century. Most of the region's old architecture is Moorish or Renaissance, which makes this small, plain stone church a genuine rarity. It is free to enter and quiet, an easy stop while exploring the UNESCO-listed center of Baeza.
Renaissance fountain at the heart of the Plaza del Populo, the square also known as the Plaza de los Leones in its honour. Four stone lions carry a central column topped by a female figure, and the carvings are widely believed to be reused Ibero-Roman pieces brought from the nearby ancient settlement of Cástulo.
Renaissance fountain on the Plaza de Santa María in Baeza, the square that faces the Baeza Cathedral. Free to admire, built in the 16th century, and one of the most photographed corners of the old town.
Working out what Baeza costs?
The whole of Baeza