LUCENA, a town of Spain, province of Cordova, in a beautiful plain near the small River Cascajar, 36 miles S.S.E. from Cordova. The town is composed of 3000 houses, mostly well built and commodious; the streets being also broad and well paved. The Plaza del Coso contains a fine public park planted with trees. The parish church was begun in 1498 on the ruins of a mosque, and finished in 1544. It is built of freestone, and measures about 135 feet
in length by 71 in breadth. On the high altar is a very fine copper bas-relief of the Passion. The town likewise contains 3 hospitals, 3 public schools, and 10 convents, of which the most remarkable, in an architectural point of view, are those of St Augustin and of the Bare-footed Carmelite Nuns. The town enjoys a very salubrious climate, and is well supplied with water, there being 15 public fountains in and near it, besides private wells to almost every house. About 3½ miles E. of the town are the mineral waters of the Horcajo, containing a large proportion of sulphur, and resorted to in cutaneous diseases. The surrounding country is fertile and well watered, producing oil, wine, and cereals, and affording excellent pasturage for horses, cattle, and hogs. The principal branches of industry are the hardware and pottery manufactures. Their lamps are especially celebrated, being made of bronze, copper, &c., variously alloyed, and very beautifully worked; they not only supply Spain and Portugal, but are exported to the contiguous districts of France, to Algiers, and the Havannah. The earthenware manufacture consists chiefly of the large jars with which they supply all Andalusia, and which are used for the storing of oil, wine, and brandy. Some hard white soap is also made. The commerce is confined to the exportation of cereals, oil, vinegar, brandy, lamps, and the above-mentioned jars. There is a yearly fair on the 8th, 9th, and 10th of May, in which all sorts of hardware utensils in tin and copper, earthenware, crystal, and cattle, are exposed for sale.
There are numerous Roman and Gothic remains in Lucena. It was taken from the Moors early in the fourteenth century, and it was in the attempt to recapture it in 1488 that King Boabdil was taken prisoner. Lucena has given birth to various celebrated men, of whom may be mentioned Alvarez de Solomayor, Barona Solo, author of Las Lágrimas de Angélica, and Folch de Cardona, author of a work on military geometry. Pop. 16,652.