Jaén () is a
province
A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of southern
Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, in the eastern part of the
autonomous community
The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...
of
Andalusia
Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...
. It is bordered by the provinces of
Ciudad Real
Ciudad Real (, ) is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region.
It was founded as Villa Real in 1255 as a ro ...
,
Albacete,
Granada and
Córdoba. Its capital is the city of
Jaén.
It has a total area of
13,484 km². Its population is 619,938 as of 1 July 2023, about one sixth of whom living in the capital. It contains
97 municipalities. The highest point of the province is
Pico Mágina (2165 m).
One of the less-known provinces of Spain, compared to the tourist-oriented coast, it has four national parks and many other protected natural areas. The province also contains two
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
cities,
Úbeda
Úbeda () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain located in the Province of Jaén (Spain), province of Jaén, Andalusia. The town lies on the southern ridge of the so-called Loma de Úbeda, a Table (landform), table sandwiched in bet ...
and
Baeza, both recently declared
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...
s by UNESCO. The province has among the highest concentration of
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
s in the world outside
the Levant, thanks to its strategic position during the ''
Reconquista
The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...
''.
The annual
chess tournament
A chess tournament is a series of chess games played competitively to determine a winning individual or team. Since the first international chess tournament in London 1851 chess tournament, London, 1851, chess tournaments have become the standard ...
, held until 2010 in
Linares, attracted many of the world's best players.
The province is the largest producer of
olive oil
Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of ''Olea europaea'', a traditional Tree fruit, tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil.
It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a cond ...
in the world. It produces around 45% of all Spanish olive oil and 20% of the world's production. For this reason the province is also known as ''World Capital of Olive Oil''. There are more than 66 million olive trees, spread over a surface of 550,000
hectare
The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...
s.
The province alone produces more olive oil than the entire country of Italy.
[ The province's production in 2013 was 749.387 ]tonnes
The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...
of olive oil.
Symbols
Flag
The flag of the province of Jaén was approved by the Provincial Council of Jaén, in the plenary session held on March 3, 2014, and registered in the Andalusian Registry of Local Entities, complying with Law 6/2003, of October 9 of Symbols, Processing and Registration of Andalusian Local Entities.
The flag is arranged in a rectangular cloth with a proportion of 1/1.5, being longer than it is wide. It has an area of 10×15 sectors, with the shield being three sectors high and eight sectors wide; and occupying six sectors high and five sectors wide. The flag is green Pantone color 377, in reference to the natural heritage of the province.
Population
The historical population is given in the following chart:
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id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7)
id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1)
ImageSize = width:500 height:auto barincrement:25
PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20
DateFormat = x.y
Period = from:0 till:800
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
AlignBars = late
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ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:50 start:0
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PlotData=
color:skyblue width:20 shift:(-50,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till
bar:1877 from:0 till:403 text:403,441
bar:1887 from:0 till:428 text:428,152
bar:1900 from:0 till:470 text:469,881
bar:1910 from:0 till:525 text:524,516
bar:1920 from:0 till:591 text:590,570
bar:1930 from:0 till:674 text:674,345
bar:1940 from:0 till:761 text:760,847
bar:1950 from:0 till:782 text:781,228
bar:1960 from:0 till:747 text:746,941
bar:1970 from:0 till:668 text:668,206
bar:1980 from:0 till:640 text:639,821
bar:1990 from:0 till:638 text:637,633
bar:2000 from:0 till:644 text:643,820
bar:2010 from:0 till:668 text:667,484
bar:2020 from:0 till:631 text:631,381
bar:2023 from:0 till:620 text:619,938
TextData=
pos:(35,20) fontsize:M
text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de EstadÃstica, INE"
See also
* List of municipalities in Jaén
* Timeline of Jaén, Spain
References
External links
Despeñaperros Natural Park
Sierra de Andújar Natural Park
Sierra Mágina Natural Park
Sierras de Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas Natural Park
Cazorla, Segura y Las Villas
*
{{Andalusia-geo-stub