BAEZA (anc. Beatia)  , a town of southern Spain, in the province of Jaen; in the Loma de Ubeda, a mountain range between the river Guadalquiver on the S. and its tributary the Guadalimar on the N . Pop . (19oo) 14,379 . Baeza has a station 3 m . S.W. on the Linares-Almeria railway . Its chief buildings are those of the university (founded in 1533, and replaced by a theological seminary), the cathedral and the Franciscan monastery . The Cordova and Ubeda gates, and the arch of Baeza, are among the remains of its old fortifications, which were of great strength . The town has little trade except in farm-produce; but its red dye, made from the native cochineal, was formerly celebrated . In the middle ages Baeza was a flourishing Moorish city, said to contain 50,000 inhabitants; but it was sacked in 1239 by Ferdinand III. of Castile, who in 1248 transferred its bishopric to Jaen . It was the birthplace of the sculptor and painter, Gaspar Becarra .