page_title: Arcos de la Frontera
section_title: Main sights
hierarchical_section_title: Arcos de la Frontera / Main sights
caption_attribution_description: Español: Ciudad de Arcos de la Frontera This is a photo of a historical area indexed in the Spanish heritage register of Bienes de Interés Cultural under the reference RI-53-0000032.
context_page_description: Arcos de la Frontera is a town and municipality in the Sierra de Cádiz comarca, province of Cádiz, in Andalusia, Spain. It is located on the Northern, Western and Southern banks of the Guadalete river, which flows around three sides of the city under towering vertical cliffs, to Jerez and on to the Bay of Cádiz. The town commands a fine vista atop a sandstone ridge, from which the peak of San Cristóbal 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.
context_section_description: Castillo de Arcos (11th-15th-century castle), a medieval castle of Moorish origin, rebuilt almost entirely in the first half of the 15th century. Currently it is private property, not open to the public. It has a quadrangular plan with four towers at the corners. It was a military alcázar in the Muslim period. On the outside, the shields of the Dukes of Arcos are observed.
  Iglesia de la Caridad (church built between the 16th and 17th centuries)
  Basílica Menor de Santa María de la Asunción, erected after the Reconquista on a Visigothic temple and the remains of a 13th and 14th century mosque. The main facade is of Plateresque-Gothic style and the facade that faces Plaza del Cabildo is mostly Renaissance. Its unfinished tower, repaired after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, has a Baroque air. Since 1931 it has been an Artistic-Historic Monument.
  Iglesia de San Pedro is a 15th-17th century church built on the site of a 14th-century Al-Andalusian fortress or watchtower. Different styles: Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, can be observed in its tower and facade.
  Iglesia de San Agustín, founded in 1539 as Convento de San Juan de Letrán. It was subsequently occupied by the convent the Order of St. Augustine of the Observance. With the Confiscation the last Augustinians were expelled and the convent was abandoned. Today, the church remains.
  Iglesia de San Miguel, formerly a Moorish fortress, in the 15th century was converted into a hermitage, and was rebuilt in the 18th century. It was also a hospice for orphaned girls. Currently it is used for exhibitions and lectures.
  Iglesia de San Francisco (church built between the 16th and 17th centuries)
  Convento de la Encarnación, a convent founded in the first half of the 16th century. Its main portal is Plateresque and the adjacent one is of late-Gothic style. Currently it is a parish hall.
  Capilla de la Misericordia, a chapel founded in 1490 to house the abandoned children, and to serve as a house and hospital for women. Its facade is Gothic. It is now a conference and exhibition hall.
  Convento de las Mercedarias Descalzas, the only remaining cloistered convent in Arcos, dating from 1642. Its nuns make sweets sold there and in some candy shops in Arcos. Formerly the nuns mended all kinds of clothes, except men's pants.
  Hospital de San Juan de Dios, a 16th-century hospital, formerly called Hospital de San Sebastián, attached to a hermitage. There were at that time 14 charitable hospitals in Arcos, and reunified in 1596 in San Sebastián.
  Palacio de los Condes del Águila, a 15th-century late Gothic-Mudéjar palace.
  Palacio del Mayorazgo, an Herrerian style house-palace built in the 17th century. It is now a municipal building.
  Asilo de la Caridad, late-16th century.
  Edificio del Pósito (granary building) with a stone facade of 1738; it was a wheat store in the 18th century, whence its takes its name. Years later it was a public school. Today it is a health center.
  Birth house of the poet Julio Mariscal, on whose facade can seen a commemorative azulejo.
  Ayuntamiento viejo, (former City Hall), with a 17th-century stone portal. The City Council moved to the building that is in front to the castle due to stones falling from the promontory.
  The Historic center, declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1962.
  Remains of the Roman and Moorish City walls, although very ruined and largely demolished. This walled enclosure comprises only the upper neighborhood of the city. The remains of these walls, which can still be recognized on the ground itself, have a detailed description of by Miguel Mancheño y Olivares in his book "Apuntes para una historia de Arcos de la Frontera (chapt. V)". Of these walls, the part between the Torre de la Esquina and San Anton have little foundation remaining, and those of the City Gates Puerta de Jerez and Puerta de Carmona have completely disappeared. The city gate Puerta de Matrera is preserved, although modified.
caption: Iglesia de San Pedro
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