Book of Apeo (1669)

Extract from the 'Real privilegio de exepción de la Villa de Zújar' (1649) - the document confering the town municipal status.

Though there is some archeological evidence of neolithic settlements, and some data which seems to support the possibility of the local existence of Bronze Age Argar culture, there are certainly remains of settlements dating from the Classical Iberian period (500-300 B.C). There is, therefore, a high  probability  that  there  existed  a  small  Iberian  sett-

It was under Muslim control that Zújar took on its present day form, with the neighbourhoods of Alcazaba, Jarea y El Lugar, built around the boulevard and its fountains. Zújar was dominated by a citadel of which there now remains very little. The citadel was positioned above the Rambla (boulevard), making for a difficult entry. It was destroyed by Christian troops during the conquest of the Kingdom of Granada in 1489, under the command of the Governor of Quesada. The episode is mentioned in various chronicles which recount the bitter resistence of the citadel's guards, which in turn provoked an artillery bombardment and the subsequent destruction of the former.

Under the rule of Muslim Granada, Zújar, together with other towns and outposts, served as part of a defense network against Christian raids and incursions into the Baza river basin.

From the Christian Reconquest until 1571, the population remained 95% Moorish. After the Alpujarran revolts, the majority were expelled and replaced by Castilians, as told in the Book of Apeo de la localidad, which contains records concerning the year 1574.
Zújar acquired independent municipal status with the title of royal town in 1649. From the 19th colonisation Century until the beginning of the 20th, the Spanish State policy of settling land brought about the ploughing of new lands, and created the settlement of Cuevas del Campo, which in the 1970s took on municipal status, ceasing to be an annex of Zújar.