In the last week of July, many of the town's 16,000 inhabitants parade and fight in richly costumed companies los piratas, los tuareg, and los moros del Rif among them re-enacting the defeat in 1538 of the Algerian pirate Zala Arraez, a Mediterranean scourge who started it all by sacking the castle in a daring dawn raid.
The castle was once sacked at dawn in a daring raid.