Osuna City

Osuna entered history with the help of classical historians and geographers. Strabo, Pliny and Ptolemy speak of the Romanized town called Urso.

Previously, Appian and Diodorus relate the presence of troops from Italy, which were installed around the area of Turdetano to give them easy access to fight the Carthaginians and the Viriato.

However, human settlements are tracked in and around Osuna from many centuries earlier. There is evidence of prehistoric cultures over a thousand years before the birth of Christ. The best known examples were discovered by Engel and Paris in 1903.

The Toro and the series of reliefs from Osuna speak of an ancient Iberian civilization which, in turn, led to an extraordinary culture that embodied the best traditions from the East Mediterranean and Greece.

The emergence of Rome was a radical change over the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. After the battle of Munda, Urso became the last stronghold for Pompey against Caesar's troops in the bloody Civil War which pitted two sides, both of whom wanted to become dominant in the republic, against each other.

Taken after a brief siege, Urso was converted by Cesar into the Colonia Iulia Genetics and permitted its own colonial law. Fragments of documents and bronzes have been discovered relating to the period; an exceptional legal legacy.

later, the city, including the Middle Ages Astigitano convent, became one of the most developed of Andalusia. The remains of the forum, the theater or the hypogean cemetery attest to its former glory.

The picture changed abruptly, once again, with the arrival of Muslims in the early eighth century. The new masters did not alter initial administrative and territorial boundaries of Osuna that had been in force since the time of Constantine. This was a time of great splendour for Usuna. It became a powerful fortress town and look on its modern relief. Now, hoever, apart from the footprint of the city, only remnants remain. These include part of the defensive complex, the Water Tower and the walls of the old citadel.