Vejer de la Frontera

Vejer de la Frontera

This beautiful town of Vejer de la Frontera is located at the foot of the road N-340, from Cádiz to Algeciras. At the km 34 it is located the first access, the most used, further on, at the kilometre 36, there is another one that flows nearer the town hall. You also can access from the road of Barbate, near the Sanctuary of La Virgen de la Oliva. The nearest airports are the ones of Jerez de la Frontera and Málaga, and if you come by railway, Cádiz.

You take few time to get the best and most virgin Spanish beaches: El Palmar, Los Caños de Meca, Conil, Zahara de los Atunes, Bolonia (impressive beach with Roman ruins), and pine forests that are Nature Reserve. Around Vejer there are the best Fighting Bulls (Toros Bravos) ranch and fantastic restaurants where you can taste the best fishes and shellfish of the area. To few kilometres we can find Algeciras and Tarifa, from where you can go Africa crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in two hours.

As far as the history of this municipality, in the hill over Vejer is located (to 190 metres above sea level), there are testimonies about the ancient human presence. Under the walls have appeared materials from the Bronze Age and recent archaeological studies have revealed the existence of an Orientalizing Period town from the VII century B.C. In the same place there were found some materials and remains of walls from the Turdetani Age, just as some pottery from the Roman Age. In its municipal area there was found a Roman villa with rich tiled floors and in the Hermitage of La Oliva is preserved a Roman inscription reutilized in the Visigoth Period. We can emphasize from the Roman presence the “villa de Libreros” and the “Horno del Chorrillo”.

In 711 the Batalla de la Janda took place, where the North African troops of Tarik defeated D. Rodrigo. From that moment and during five and a half centuries, Vejer was under Muslim control, being object of enrichment of the magnificent Arab – Islamic culture from what we have some traces like the door of the castle (XI century), part of the walls and the framework of its streets.

Vejer de la Frontera Monuments

Windmills
Vejer Castle
Closed Door
San Juan Tower
Arch of La Villa
Walled Enclosure
La Corredera Tower
El Mayorazgo Tower
Casa del Mayorazgo
El Palmar Watchtower
Segur Gate (Arch of La Segur)
Divino Salvador Parish Church
Sanctuary of Ntra. Señora de la Oliva
Casa Solariega del Marqués de Tamarón
Gate of Sancho the 4Th (Puerta de Sancho IV)
Ancient Convent of Our Lady of The Conception
Anthropomorphic Graves of the Village Neveros

Vejer de la Frontera Interesting Routes

Route of Los Patios
Route Buenavista
Route of Los Molinos
Route Monumental

Gastronomy in Vejer de la Frontera

Vejer de la Frontera has a great variety of products from the land and the sea. The excellent quality of the vegetables, the meat from Retinto (dark brown) that graze in the lands, the fish of our coasts and the exquisiteness of its traditional receipts (cabbage stews, asparagus and golden thistles, lomo en manteca, confectionery…) allows the traveller to taste and enjoy a good cooking.

How to get there

If you come from the centre of Spain, you have to take the Motorway A-4 -Ctra. de Andalucía- once you have passed Sevilla, continue towards Cádiz -by AP4- continue until the exit 101, and there take the A-48 towards Algeciras. In the Exit 36 you get Vejer de la Frontera.

Distances from Vejer de la Frontera

Cádiz 54 km
Tarifa 50 km
Algeciras 69 km
Málaga 203 km
Jerez de la Frontera 64 km

The Golden beaches and defensive architecture of Vejer de la Frontera

A few kilometers from the Atlantic coast of Cadiz we can find one of the most beautiful and best preserved historic centers in the province of Cadiz, Vejer de la Frontera. Its network of sleep streets with whitewashed houses and balconies full of flowers peppered with important monuments earned it the status of Conjunto Histórico Artistico in 1976. Part of the Natural Park of La Breña y Marismas del Barbate and the beach of El Palmar, with golden sand and over four kilometers long, are within the municipal area.

Human presence in Vejer de la Frontera dates back to the Paleolithic Age. At the end of the Bronze Age it was a fortified hamlet, from which there are remains of a wall. There are also vestiges from t he Roman civilization in the area, but the most prominent mark on the present character of the village was left by the Arabs, who conquered it in the same year they invaded the Iberian Peninsula 711. The Christian conquest came at the end of the 13^th Century, after a long period of battles against the Muslims. Due to its constant exposure to military confrontation.  Vejer was protected by an enclosure with an irregular layout and walls of up to two meters t hick, which was built during the middle Ages and which has survived until the present.

Amongst the oldest remain of the castle, situated on the top of the walled enclosure and declared a National Monument in 1931, the main gate stands out, dated to the 11^th Century.

The House of Perez Guzman undertook a series of restorations in the 14^th and 15^th Centuries of which the old residence of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia is the only remnant. Other constructions of defensive character in Vejerde la Frontera are the Tower of Mayorazgo, Tower of La Corredera and Tower of San Juan. Amongst the civil architecture the ancestral homes of the Mayorazgo and the Marquis of Tamaron and the wind mills from the 19^th century are reamarkable.

Vejer de la Frontera also has a rich religious heritage of note being the church of the convent of La Concepcion, the sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de la Oliva and the church of Divino Salvador, built over an old mosque.