Vejer

Vejer de la Frontera comes into view from afar, crowning a hill some 200 metres high that overlooks the River Barbate, barely 8 kilometres from the Atlantic. Its historic centre, still encircled by walls, preserves the castle and several notable churches, and was declared a historic-artistic site in 1976. Since 2014 it has also been listed among the Most Beautiful Villages in Spain, an accolade that makes perfect sense as soon as you start wandering its streets.

Much of that charm is owed to its long Andalusi period. After the Battle of Guadalete in 711, when the troops of Tariq ibn Ziyad defeated King Roderic, the town was renamed Bashir and remained under Muslim rule for five and a half centuries. From that era survive the 11th-century castle gateway, part of the walls and, above all, the layout of its streets, which still shapes any stroll through the town.

Its history, however, begins much earlier. The site has been inhabited since the Palaeolithic and already had fortifications in the Bronze Age. Tartessian and Roman remains from the 7th century BC have been found beneath the present-day walls, and although they have been linked to Baesippo, some believe the name Vejer derives from Baesarum, the Baesaro or Besaro mentioned by Pliny.

The suffix "de la Frontera" recalls its role on the border with the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. Conquered by Ferdinand III in 1250, it was lost in a revolt in 1264 and was not definitively recovered until 1285. In 1307 it passed to the lordship of Guzmán el Bueno, defender of the Strait and owner of its almadrabas (tuna traps), whose heirs became the Dukes of Medina Sidonia. The townspeople, led by Juan Relinque, rose up against them to defend the common lands known as the Hazas de la Suerte, a tradition that is now seeking recognition as intangible heritage.

Close by, on the municipality's coastline, El Palmar de Vejer rounds off the visit with the Atlantic air of a small rural settlement given over to summer holidays.