Parish church of La Purificación

Puente Genil is an agricultural centre of 30,000 people (2018) in the Córdoba province.

Understand

Puente Genil is known for its Semana Santa-celebration. This Christian "Holy Week" takes place the week before Easter.

• Tourism Information Office, C/ Susana Benítez, nº 46., ☏ +34 957 60 08 53, fax: +34 957 60 05 38. 

Climate

Winters are cold and summers are hot, with significant daily temperature fluctuations ranging from 0 °C and even temperatures below 0 °C in winter to more than 40 °C in summer. Annual rainfall is around 400 mm.

Get in

Puente Genil is served by Puente Genil-Herrera railway station, around 4 km from the town centre on the AVE high-speed rail line from Madrid to Málaga.

It has several daily services that link it with the cities of Granada, Malaga, Córdoba, Madrid, Seville, Zaragoza and Barcelona, among others. It also has numerous medium-distance AVANT shuttle links, which connect the cities of Córdoba, Granada, Puente Genil, Seville, Antequera and Malaga.

• 1 Puente Genil-Herrera railway station (Estación de Puente Genil-Herrera). (updated Nov 2020)

Get around

The city has three urban bus lines, which are served by the Autocares Marín company. They operate M-F every 30 min 08:00-21:00, and Sa hourly 09:00-14:00.

See

Civil architecture

Puente Genil has many examples of civil architecture, ranging from the bridge that connects the two historic neighbourhoods of the town to palace houses from the 18th and 19th centuries, passing through the industrial architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that testify the great economic development that the town experienced at this time.

• Bridge over the Genil river: rebuilt in the 18th century, and modified with a wide brick arch that was built in 1874.
• Stewardship of the Dukes of Medinaceli: a large 18th-century palace-house arranged around an elegant patio with red jasper columns. The baroque main façade is on Don Gonzalo Street, the most historic in the town, and it appears flanked by noble coats of arms as well as beautiful balconies. Inside, the main staircase and the "golden" room stand out, where you will find the most valuable furniture and decoration.
• Circus Theatre: inaugurated in 1902, the eclectic style building includes modernist and regionalist elements. calle Jesús, 1, in the historic neighbourhood of La Isla.

Casa Consistorial pontanesa (Town Hall)

• Town Hall, 1897, inspired by its construction in the Vendramín-Calergi Venetian palace, even using a white and whitewashed plaster on its façade that was rare at the time in Puente Genil, which achieves an effect very similar to that of the Venetian palace. The appearance of this beautiful building has changed little, and it is one of the few local urban testimonies that have withstood the passage of time with dignity.
• Cortijo Las Monjas: Its construction dates from 1869 and its first use was as Convent House of a group of the religious congregation of the Order of Saint Paul the First Hermit, displaced from Lepoglava (current Croatia), who in 1854 suffered the alienation of their monastery by local authorities to transform it into a prison.

Religious architecture

• Church of Our Lady of Purification: It is the largest and oldest church in the town. Its origin is medieval, although it has been much transformed in later centuries. Its interior is grandiose and its spacious and clean spaces, articulated by monumental masses of austere packaging from which the gravity of the whole derives. This effect is accentuated by the use of pilasters, cornices and other classical elements, whose purity of lines highlights a diaphanous lighting. Among its treasures is the tabernacle, occupied by a beautiful 18th century carving of Our Lady of Purification, its pictorial works, and its goldsmithing.
• Church of Santiago el Mayor: This church was blessed in 1705.
• Sanctuary of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno: The configuration of the building is the result of the profound transformation in the 19th century. This church has a Latin cross plan, in it the Image of Jesús Nazareno presides over the main altar made of Carrara marble, the work of the Italian Enrique Casanova.
• The Parish of Ntra. Sra. Del Carmen, on Avda. De la Estación No. 152, is neo-gothic in style and has a Latin cross plan.
• Church of the Conception: a temple that shelters the Patron Saint of Puente Genil, built in the second half of the 18th century.
• Church of Our Lady of Victory and Local Historical Museum of Puente Genil: It is a 17th century church, consisting of a nave with a simulated transept.
• Iglesia de la Victoria (Los Frailes), next to the Local Historical Museum. Inside the church its altarpieces stand out. The largest, baroque and considerably deteriorated, has a curved attic where there is a circular canvas and on both sides of this are the Jerusalem Cross and the embrace of Saint Francis. Occupying a small niche at the top of the central street is the image of Our Lady of Victoria (from the 18th century), head of the church, below the image of San Francisco de Asís holding in his left hand a crucifix on which he fixes his gaze. In the side streets the images of Santo Domingo and Santa Clara.
• Church of Our Lady of the Assumption (Old Hospital): the church was completed in 1705It is a baroque temple with a Latin cross plan, having on its sides niches with small but interesting baroque altarpieces. This temple is chosen by numerous town criers to pronounce the Holy Week Proclamation every Palm Sunday. Likewise, numerous musical and choral concerts are held there.
• Church of the Royalty of Mary (Company of Mary)
• Church of Our Lady of the Forsaken: A new church in its modernist-style structure and triangular in shape, with which it has been tried to evoke the silhouette and mantle of the Virgin.
• Hermitage of the Sweet Name of Jesus: built 1583 to 1589
• Chapel of the Lord of the River

Industrial architecture

• La Aurora is an industrial building that was built in the Cordoba town of Puente Genil in 1897 to house the facilities of the Power Plant. The use of exposed brick as a decorative element with Mudejar reminiscences stands out on its façade. The name of the building is given by an image of the Roman Goddess Aurora, which tops the upper cornice. Its Monumentality stands out. It is located on Calle Jesús, 8.
• The Alliance: its construction was carried out in 1887, by the French architect D. Leopoldo Lemoniez as a flour and electricity factory. Puente Genil was the second town in Spain and first in Andalusia to have electric light taking advantage of the force of the water current. This building is in the national square, next to the bridge and at the foot of the river that gives its name to this town, the access to the old factory is on Río de Oro street.
• Bodegas Delgado: in 1874, Don Antonio Delgado Gálvez and his wife, Doña María Estrada Pérez, founded the winery from the acquisition of a lot of American oak barrels in the town now called Moriles. Moriles, with nearby Montilla, gives its name to the Montilla-Moriles Designation of Origin, whose wines are recognized for their special qualities as fine and amontillados wines.
• Carmen building: an emblematic building from 1904, completely restored with an exquisite "rustic modernist" decoration. It is a hotel with 30 fully equipped rooms.
• Iron Bridge:
• Fuente Álamo, an archaeological site, in which traces of an uninterrupted occupation of about a thousand years have been found. In Caliphate times, part of the Roman structures were used to build a small rural oil mill with a very short life, as evidenced by the Caliphate and post-Caliphal ceramics found in the place, and by the necropolis discovered in 2008-09, close to this mill.

Do

Religious procession

Holy Week

Its Semana Santa celebration, contracted in the local vernacular to "mananta", takes place around Easter in March or April. 23 brotherhoods carry out a liturgical, pastoral and charitable activity throughout the year and that carry out a penance season during the days of Holy Week (From Passion Saturday to Easter Sunday). The brotherhoods are the main element that gives meaning to the religious celebration of Holy Week. The population of Puente Genil almost triples during Good Thursday and Friday (the day that the Patron of the town, Jesús Nazareno, leaves). Puente Genil Holy Week begins on Glory Saturday and ends on Easter Sunday.

Other events

• Feria Real: "Royal Fair" celebrated in mid-August.
• Rock And River Blues Festival. In early July, Puente Genil hosts one of the most important Blues festivals in the province of Córdoba. It began in 2005. (updated Nov 2020)