Castle of Tarifa

The Castle of Tarifa (Spanish: Castillo de Tarifa), also known as Castle of Guzmán el Bueno ("Good Guzmán", nickname of Alonso Pérez de Guzmán) or Castle of the Guzmáns (Alonso Pérez de Guzmán being the founder of the line from which the dukes of Medina Sidonia descend) is a castle in the coastal town of Tarifa in Spain.

The castle was built in 960 by Abd-ar-Rahman III, Caliph of Córdoba. When Tarifa was taken over by the king of Castile Sancho IV in 1292, the castle was handed over to Alonso Pérez de Guzmán for its defense. Pérez de Guzmán got the nickname of "Good" (el Bueno) by refusing to hand over the castle in 1296 to the besieging forces of the Infante Don Juan, the rebellious brother of the king Sancho, and the Marinids, in exchange for the life of his son.

Recently refurbished, the castle is open to visitors. The coast and mountains of Morocco are visible from its towers.

Text adapted from “Castle of Tarifa” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Castle of Tarifa ranks #3,327 of 8,133 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #132 of the 603 mapped in Spain. Founded 960, it is older than 93% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 138 atlas entries founded in the 10th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,086 times in the last 60 days, more than 51% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Algeciras, 19 km away. It is one of the 126 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Andalusia. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗