It is well known that the mountains of Cádiz are packed with amazing places. But Zahara is especially impressive. It shares the Arab past with other white villages, the tradition of whitewashed houses and the taste for colourful flowers. Although the most characteristic feature of this town is its location, the perfect place to check who passed by these mountains, see their faces and guess who they prayed to.
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It is well known that the mountains of Cádiz are packed with amazing places. But Zahara is especially impressive. It shares the Arab past with other white villages, the tradition of whitewashed houses and the taste for colourful flowers. Although the most characteristic feature of this town is its location, the perfect place to check who passed by these mountains, see their faces and guess who they prayed to.
If all this makes you think about Moors and Christians, you’ve got it right. Because one of the things we know about Zahara is that it marked the border of the Nasrid kingdom and that King Alfonso X the Wise and Sultan Ben Yusef had a meeting here back in the thirteenth century. It turns out that the son of the Castilian king had revolted, and to fight him, he asked the Muslim for help. It seems that Alfonso said that since his sons became his enemies, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take his enemies as his children.
What is clear is that Zahara de la Sierra had an impressive and almost inexpugnable fortress of which today we are left with the Homage Tower, located at the highest point of the area. And, how did the Christian armies take possession of this building? Well, legend has it that it was thanks to the pigeons… You’ll see!
During the night the defenders of the castle threw stones down the cliff to see if the birds flew away. That meant that there was no danger because otherwise, the birds would have flown away already if they had sensed it. The Christian soldiers managed to slowly reach the foot of the rocky wall, while the birds began to fly little by little as they were getting closer. Once there, the soldiers hid until the stones started to fall. Then they let free all the pigeons they were carrying to fool the ones on the top, who went off to have a pleasant sleep … And that’s how they were able to assault the fortress easily.
In fact, Zahara was so significant that both armies defended it and assaulted it several times, and it was one of the Nazarite victories in this place which irritated the Catholic Kings so much, that led it to the end of the Reconquest.
There is not much left of that medieval village, but there is plenty from the centuries that followed. The traditional houses of the Cádiz Mountain range huddled together in such a rough landscape form incredible sights along with the fountains, balconies and viewpoints. It is one of those places of which we can safely say that the monument is the village itself, from top to bottom.
