Castle and Statue of Sancho IV

Tarifa, Andalusia, Spain, May 6, 2013

The castle provides a backdrop for the statue of Sancho IV the Brave of Castille. His forces captured Tarifa from the Moors in 1292. Although we often of the reconquest being completed in 1492, in fact, most of Spain was under Spanish rule long before that. Tarifa, at the southern tip of Spain, had already been Spanish for 200 years before the reconquest was complete. There was also fighting around Tarifa during the Peninsular War, it coming under siege by the French in 1810 and 1811.