Located within the mountain ranges of the Subbetic Zone, the area is thickly forested and boasts magnificent holm oak groves.

The Christ of Chircales has been the focus of religious observance in Valdepeñas de Jaén since the sixteenth century and is celebrated from September 1 to 5 of each year.

It was replaced in 1962 by the sculptor Julio Pajares Vilches and the cabinetmaker Felipe Cobo Campos, with paintings by Francisco Cerezo Moreno.

The Parish Archive, the silverware collection, a carving of San José (18th century, the work of Francisco Calvo Bustamante), the images of Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno, and of the Christ of Medinaceli or of the Sentencia (both by the sculptor Francisco Malo Guerrero) and that of the Immaculate Conception (19th-20th century, by Pío Mollar Franch) are among the artefacts kept in the church.

In 1566, a resident of Valdepeñas, Juan Ruiz Castellano, donated land for the construction of a hermits' sanctuary "next to some stone villages of old buildings."

This endowment gave rise to a religious foundation in the tradition of Juan de Ávila and his disciples, who had trained at the University of Baeza.

From 1566, it was linked to the estate of the Arceo-Gamboa family, who had the right to use the water for the mills, in exchange for the payment of an annual income of seventy bushels of wheat to the Valdepeñas Council.

Founded in the seventeenth century, it was dedicated to Saint Sebastian, a traditional intercessor against epidemics, and in times of plague and other infections may have served as a checkpoint for travellers entering the town.

The chapel was rebuilt at his own expense by Bishop Fray Diego Melo of Portugal in 1807, with an annexed cemetery, one of the oldest in the province of Jaén.

Constructed in blocks of volcanic rock from local quarries, its single arch spans the Ranera, a tributary of the River Víboras.