Ubeda and Baeza, cities of genius
A walk through the alleyways from the Al-Andalus era, what remains of the Jewish quarter and stop for a while to enjoy some extraordinary renaissance mansions, the town of Úbeda brings to mind two gigantic cultural figures from down the centuries: Joaquín Sabina and Antonio Muñoz Molina. The atmosphere is embedded with their verses and their messages. The singer can be heard in the street and whispers to you as you stand in a bar; the novelist introduces you to the mysteries of Mágina, a real and imaginary city invented by him and the name he gave to his universe. The neighbouring sister-town of Baeza had the honour of being the home to a giant of letters, Antonio Machado, who used to enjoy walking from one city to another, always in a hurry. A wise choice.
The old Baccalaureate Institute, the former University of Baeza (1538), took on a teacher who was running away from life, a Machado devastated by the death of his wife. You can still visit the classroom where he taught French grammar, and it has been kept just as it was in Machado's time. You will be overwhelmed to experience the exact moment when Federico García Lorca met the master in exactly the same place, just at the time when the maestro from Granada decided to be a poet at the age of 18.
Machado ended up falling in love with a land that he got to know and love deeply. Travellers can walk to Úbeda, just like Machado often did, but without leaving Baeza there are a number of places related to the time he spent there, including the house where he lived in the Calle Gaspar Becerra, a statue of him seated next to the Casino Nuevo and the promenade that bears his name and has exceptional panoramic views of the countryside and the Sierra Mágina.
Fans of Joaquín Sabina make a pilgrimage to Calle Melancolía, a tavern that he frequented and where you can see photos of the young man from Úbeda with his friends from that time, and drawings of the singer accompanying lyrics and poems. They even exhibit a card commemorating his first communion, that of Joaquín Martínez Sabina, a boy from the neighbourhood. The parish church of San Lorenzo, recently restored and "open for works", is the setting and central scenario for the "Sabina pasaba por aquí" (Sabina was here), an ambitious cultural programme that revolves around the figure of the singer.
Even though Mágina refers to the beautiful mountain range that can be seen from lookout points in Úbeda, it is also the name of the imaginary town in the novels by Antonio Munoz Molina, winner of the Príncipe de Asturias Award for Letters. But in reality, Mágina is Úbeda, the town where he was born in 1956, in the neighbourhood of San Lorenzo. This is the place where he spent his childhood, and some of the town's monuments such as the Casa de las Torres, are used for much of the plot for "El Jinete Polaco" and for the novel "El Viento de la Luna". the pathway around the walls of the town now bears the name of the writer.
For those who enjoy culture lover, this is another innovative and creative way of discovering two extraordinary towns not to be missed on a magnificent tour through Andalusia.
