Arcos de la Frontera

This article is about a Spanish town. For other uses, see Arcos (disambiguation).

Arcos de la Frontera
Municipality
Coat of arms
Arcos de la Frontera Location in Spain
Coordinates:
Country	Spain
Autonomous community	Andalusia
Province	Cádiz
Comarca	Sierra de Cádiz
Government
• Alcalde	Jose Luis Nuñez (PP)
Area
• Total	527.54 km2 (203.68 sq mi)
Elevation	185 m (607 ft)
Population (2008)
• Total	31,017
• Density	59/km2 (150/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Arcense, Arcobricense
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	11630
Website	Official website

Arcos de la Frontera is a town in the province of Cádiz in southern Spain. It is located on the eastern bank of the Guadalete river, which flows to the Bay of Cadiz. The town commands a fine vista atop a sandstone ridge, from which the peak of San Cristobal and the Guadalete Valley can be seen. The town gained its name by being the frontier of Spain's 13th century battle with the Moors.

History

There is local evidence that Stone Age cave-dwellers used rocks to form living chambers. Roman ruins also exist in the area.

Arcos became an independent Moorish taifa in 1011 during the protracted collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba. Arcos was associated with the Jerez by 'Abdun ibn Muhammad who ruled from c. 1029/1030 to 1053. The region was overtaken by the Almoravid dynasty in 1091. From 1145 to 1147 the region of Arcos and Jerez was briefly a taifa under dependency of Granada, led by Abu'l-Qasim Ahyal.

The town was a bulwark of Christianity after Alfonso the Wise of Castile (1252–1284) expelled the Moors. He constructed a Gothic cathedral which remains on its high ridge.

It is famed for its ten bells, which tolled throughout the war with the Moors. Several Moorish banners were taken in the nearby battle of Zahara and have been on display in a church in Arcos since 1483.

Main sights

La Peña Vieja (The Old Cliff).

• Castillo de Arcos (15th-century castle)
• Iglesia Parroquial de Santa María de la Asunción, a church built between the 16th and 18th centuries
• Convent of San Agustín (16th-17th centuries)
• Church of San Pedro (16th-18th centuries)
• Ayuntamiento (17th-century city hall)
• Iglesia de San Francisco (church built between the 16th and 17th centuries))
• Iglesia de la Caridad (church built between the 16th and 17th centuries))

Notes

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

References

• M. Mancheño y Olivares, Galeria de Arcobricenses illustres (Arcos, 1892)
• M. Mancheño y Olivares, Riqueza y cultura de Arcos de la Frontera (Arcos, 1898)

External links

• Ayuntamiento de Arcos de la Frontera (Spanish)
• Arcos en la Red - Información ciudadana y turística sobre Arcos de la Frontera (Spanish)
• Arcos de la Frontera en Twitter. (Spanish)
• Satellite image from Google Local
• Jerez de la Frontera Airport