JAÉN , the provincial capital and by far the largest town, is an uneventful sort of place with traces of its Moorish past in its ruined castle and in the largest surviving Moorish baths in Spain. The town is centred around the Plaza de la Constitución and its two arterial streets, Paseo de la Estación and Avenida de Madrid.

 

West of the main plaza is the imposing seventeenth-century Renaissance Catedral (daily 8.30am-1pm & 5-8pm; free), while to the north, between the churches of San Andrés and Santo Domingo, you'll find the painstakingly restored Moorish hammam in the Baños Arabes (Tues-Fri 9am-8pm, Sat & Sun 9.30am-2.30pm; free). Among the finest of their kind in Spain, the baths were originally part of an eleventh-century Moorish palace, and are now located inside the Palacio de Villardompardo, which was constructed over the Moorish palace. Jaén's Museo Provincial , Paseo de la Estación 29 (Tues 3-8pm, Wed-Sat 9am-8pm, Sun 9am-3pm; ¬1.50, free to EU citizens), has a large archeological collection including some remarkable fifth-century BC Iberian sculptures, now set to become the centrepiece of a major new museum of Iberian art.