Perched on a promontory of the Loma de Ubeda, between the river Guadalivir and its tributary the Guadalimar, Baeza is an old multi-cultural keep, beautifully preserved. To the Romans it was known as Vilvatia, and in the middle-ages until the early 13th century it was a thriving Moorish town. Ferdinand III took over the town in 1227 and filled it with Italian Renaissance architecture funded by the riches of a textiles trade boom that peaked during the 16th and 17th centuries. A stroll through the Zona Monumental will run you into some wonderful standing trophies of the city’s glory days, and all set against a backdrop white stucco walls and cobbled streets.