Cástulo — Linares

Cástulo sits on the right bank of the Guadalimar, ~7 km from Linares. Iberian oppidum of Oretania, then Roman municipium, later a bishopric. The published story is metals — copper, silver, lead from Sierra Morena — and a road node on the upper Guadalquivir. Walk the plateau and ask why a town this large sat here, not in the valley floor.

Junta Conjunto Arqueológico desk +34 953 106 074 / +34 600 143 464, castulo.ccul@juntadeandalucia.es. Site on JV-3003; museum in town at Calle General Echagüe 2. museosdeandalucia.es — Cástulo. Seasonal hours (longer spring evenings; summer mornings). EU visitors free as published. Groups: same phone or the email.

How to get there: from Linares, JV-3003 toward Torreblascopedro, signed Ciudad de Cástulo. Do not confuse the hill site with the town museum — both are one institution, two doors.