- South of Úbeda, the market gardens step down from the foot of the wall that rings the city towards the Guadalquivir valley.
- The gardens used a network of pre-Romanesque tunnels, known as “minados”, that carried water for irrigation from the aquifers north of the city.
- Of a landscape of terraces that stretched as far as Baeza, the neighbouring World Heritage city, barely one hundred and nineteen plots of half a hectare, known as “tablas”, survive today.
- Among them stands out the Huerta Grande, where the Huertas de San Antonio Foundation has led a project to prepare plots, let on a sharecropping basis, to help keep alive the knowledge and trade of the gardeners and the characteristic landscape of this part of the city.
More about this place…
Market gardens and the gardener’s trade have been closely tied to the city of Úbeda, especially its southern side. From the spectacular viewpoint of the Church of San Lorenzo we can still see the traditionally farmed terraces that have survived the passage of time and the relentless advance of the olive groves, which have almost wiped out the varied landscape this area once enjoyed. The Huerta Grande, the Huerta de la Higueruela and the Huerta de los Sanjuanes still resist, keeping alive here a trade almost as old as humanity.
