Martos

Martos, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Jaen, 16 m. W.S.W. of Jaen, by the Jaen-Lucena railway. Pop. (1900), 17,078. Martos is situated on an outlying western peak of the Jabalcuz mountains, which is surmounted by a ruined castle and overlooks the plain of Andalusia. In the neighbourhood are two sulphurous springs with bathing establishments. The local trade is almost exclusively agricultural.

Martos perhaps stands on or near the site of the Tucci of Ptolemy, which was fortified and renamed Colonia Augusta Gemella by the Romans. By Ferdinand III. it was taken from the Moors in 1225, and given to the knights of Calatrava; it was here that the brothers Carvajal, commanders of the order, were in 1312 executed by command of Ferdinand IV. Before their death they summoned Ferdinand to meet them within thirty days at the judgment-seat of God. Ferdinand died a month later and thus received the popular name of el Emplazado - " the Summoned."