Lucena () is a municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is the second-most populated municipality in the province.

A major Jewish centre from the 9th to the 12th centuries, Lucena was remarked for having a Jewish-majority population. The Subbaetic system include neighboring subranges such as the sierras of Cabra, Carcabuey, Pollos, Horconera, and Rute. It was first mentioned in a 853 responsum which described Lucena (Alisana), then part of the Emirate of Córdoba, as "a city of many Jews" with "no Gentile in its midst". The city then belonged to the Kūra (district) of Cabra. The Jewish scholars of Lucena maintained correspondence with the geonim of the Sura Academy in Babylonia. Some gravestones unearthed in the Jewish necropolis of Lucena have been tentatively dated to the 9th–10th centuries. Already in the 10th century, Lucena's Jewry competed in importance with Córdoba's. Amid the fitna of al-Andalus that brought the collapse of the Caliphate of Córdoba in the 11th century, Lucena became part of the Zirid Kingdom of Granada.

At the beginning of the 11th century, several important Jewish scholars lived in Lucena. Isaac Alfasi founded a large Talmudic academy in Lucena, and here also Isaac ibn Ghayyat, Isaac ibn Albalia, and Joseph ibn Migash were prominent. The Talmudic academy was relocated to Toledo by ibn Migash's sons. Jewish commentator Abraham ibn Ezra lamented the fall of Lucena to the Almohads as if it were a sort of a minor Jerusalem. Whatever the case, Lucena effectively ceased to exist then as a Jewish centre.

Lucena was conquered by the Crown of Castile in 1240. It was thereby donated to the Bishop and the Cabildo of the Cathedral of Córdoba in 1241. Lucena remained under Cordobese bishopric control until 1342, when it became a stately possession under Leonor de Guzmán. It was thus granted a fuero similar to Córdoba's in 1344. A borderland town with the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada for the rest of the middle ages, it became a possession of a branch of the in the late 14th century. In 1483, when Muhammad XI of Granada invaded Castile, he was taken prisoner at Lucena.

Population boomed in the early 16th century, growing from 1,300 inhabitants in 1495 to about 8,172 in 1530, owing to the disappearance of the frontier condition in the wake of the Conquest of Granada in 1492. Lucena was then settled by numerous converso families, contributing to the demographic growth. Conversos leaned on serving the ruling aristocracy, the Marquises of Comares. Lucena was granted the title of ciudad ('city') in 1618.

Portuguese immigrants with a converso background such the Rodríguez settled in Lucena in the early modern period linking with the local Carmona-Castillo converso lineage. Similarly to the situation in other towns of the Kingdom of Córdoba, the Portuguese involved in sectors of the local economy such as the textile industry and slave trade.

The chief industries are the manufacture of furniture, industrial refrigerators, wine, bronze lamps and pottery, especially the large earthenware jars (tinajas) used in the past throughout Spain for the storage of oil and wine, some of which held more than 300 gallons. Matches also used to be made there. There is considerable trade in agricultural produce. The horse fair in September was famous throughout Andalusia,

  • Antonio Mohedano (1561-1625, Antequera), painter of the Renaissance period.
  • Francisco Hurtado Izquierdo (1699-1725, Priego de Córdoba), architect, author of the tabernacle in the Granada Charterhouse.
  • José María Hinojosa, "El Tempranillo" (1805-1833), bandolero.
  • Paco de Lucena (1859-1898), flamenco guitarist
  • Victor Perez (Director) (born 1981), Spanish director, producer and digital film compositor

References

  • Official website
  • Culture House
  • Young House
  • Lucena
  • LucenaEmpresas, Guia online de Lucena