HISTORY:

The present populace came to exist around 1340 on being relocated to the area by Martín Alfonso de Córdoba. The intention of the inhabitants of the nearby castle of Dos Hermanas was to improve the defence of the territory that had been conquered by Fernando III a century earlier. The founding of Monmtemayor came about with the construc- tion of the castle around which the populace began to grow. During the moderm Age the feudal estate of Montemayor came under the feudal dominion of Counts of Alcaudete and later became linked to the house of Oropesa.

PLACES TO VISIT:

At the highest point of the town stands the parish church La Asunción, a church of Gothic Mudejar influence constructed in the XVI Century which underwent Baroque reforms in the XVIII Century.In the principal chapel there is a Renaissance altarpiece elaborated around the middle of the XVII Century by the Granadan artist Pedro Freile de Guevara. Between the XVI and XVIII Centuries successive chapels were added. The best being the Sagrario at the head of the Epistle nave, contructed at the beginning of the XVIII Century by Gaspar Lorenzo de los Cobos, the same author of the altarpiece who employed in his adornment attractive polychrome plasterwork, to be found too, exteriorally, in the beauteful porchway. In the ancient chapel of El Rosario the parish priest has installed a silverwork museum, which boasts a rich parochial collection amongst which feature an altar frontal, the work of Damián de Castro completed in the XVIII Century. Next to the parish church one finds the hermitage of Jesús Nazareno reconstructed in 1766.Together with the church at the highest point of the town is the castle- the residence and private property of the Duke and Duchess of Frias. Its construction began around 1340 with Martín Alfonso de Córdoba, the founding of the new population brought with it succesive enlargements and reforms which give it its present-day appearence.

GASTRONOMY:

Traditional dishes of Montemayor are la gallina en pepitoria, las habas con berenjenas and morcilla, el arroz con bacalao and el puchero. Amongst its typical sweet dishes are el gañote, los roscos de aguardiente and los panetes which come in the shape of figures or animals, they are made of dough and it is custom to give them to children on saints days.

FIESTAS:

Montemayor is the land of saeteros (singers of saetas) who display their singing abilities in the processions of Semana Santa, concentrating in particular on Friday at midday in Las Cuatro Esquinas when the paso of Jesús Nazareno can be seen. From 22 to 24 June they celebrate the feria of San Acacio the patron of the town.