The old world town of Baeza, the Roman Vivatia, lies in the upper valley of the Guadalquivir, among the foothills of the Loma de Ubeda, surrounded by olive-groves and fields of corn. The see of a bishop in Visigothic times, it was conquered by the Moors and finally became Christian again in the 13th
Century. In the 16th century a university was founded in the town. As a trading town on the border between La Mancha and Andalusia Baeza prospered particularly in the 16th century: a prosperity which found expression in the building of many handsome town houses and noble mansions.