Founded by Ibn Marwan in the year 875 on a settlement occupied since the most remote times of prehistory, Badajoz was installed on a Visigoth population then already disappeared, taking advantage of the top of the Cerro de la Muela, from which the current city developed and became an important capital of an extensive independent kingdom in the Taifa period, the largest in the peninsula, and where one of the largest libraries in the Arab world was located.

After the Reconquest, Alfonso IX granted it privileges and privileges of an extensive territory for being the head of an ancient kingdom, as well as its emblem or royal banner. From the juridical point of view it was royal and lordly, besides being the episcopal see of the Bishopric of Badajoz constituted from 1255. Its political-military relevance and frontier position made it, from the beginning of the XVII century, the seat of the General Captaincy of the Royal Army of Extremadura, capital of the province of Extremadura and, after the division into provinces, capital of “Lower Extremadura” as the province of Badajoz, also continuing as regional capital.

The walled enclosure of Badajoz is the longest in Spain and the Arab citadel of the city is the largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world in terms of its perimeter and extension, which has positioned it as Cultural Capital of the Iberian Southwest.

Don’t you know Badajoz yet? Let a certified guide show you as you could never have imagined.