Arcos

Arcos de la Frontera

Arcos is the archetypal 'white town', perched on top of a sheer sandstone cliff with its churches, houses and castle looking as though they could tumble into the Guadalete river at any moment.The largest of Cádiz province's pueblos blancos (white villages), it sits right at the western end of the Sierra de Grazalema mountains, on the edge of the vast plain which leads beyond Jerez to the Guadalquivir river and the Atlantic Ocean.

Visitors are enthralled by the winding, up-and-down cobbled streets of Arcos old town, declared a national monument as far back as 1962. Strolling through these passageways, you catch glimpses of the flood plain or the lake below and you can imagine what an imposing task the Christians faced trying to recapture the casco antiguo from the Moors.

But Arcos isn't just about the past. The ancient cliffs are flanked by a newer town; this is where most of the 30,000 Arcenses live and where they shop and go about their daily lives. The blend of bustling modernity and a past full of history is what makes Arcos such a memorable place to anyone who's ever visited.

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