Province of Jaén (Spain)


Jaén is a province of southern Spain, in the eastern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is bordered by the provinces of Ciudad Real, Albacete, Granada and Córdoba. Its capital is Jaén city.
Its area is 13,484 km². Its population is 657,387, about one sixth of whom living in the capital. It contains 97 municipalities. The highest point of the province is Pico Mágina.
One of the less-known provinces of Spain, compared to the heavily-tourist-oriented coast, it has four national parks and many other protected natural areas. The province also contains two Renaissance cities, Úbeda and Baeza, both recently declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. The province has among the highest concentration of castles in the world outside the Levant thanks to its strategic position during the Reconquista.
The annual chess tournament held until 2010 in Linares attracted many of the world's best players.
The province is the largest producer of olive oil in the world. It produces around 45% of all Spanish production and 20% of world's production. For this reason the province is also known as World Capital of Olive Oil. There are more than 66 million of olive trees, spread over a surface of 550,000 hectares. The province alone produces more olive oil than the entire country of Italy. The province's production in 2013 was 749.387 tonnes of olive oil.