Alcazaba de Badajoz

Badajoz, Spain, Spain

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The Alcazaba de Badajoz is Spain's largest surviving Muslim fortress, located atop a hill overlooking the Guadiana River in Badajoz, Extremadura.

Originating in the 9th century under early Muslim rule and substantially rebuilt by the Almohads in the 12th century under Caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf, it features massive walls reinforced with over a dozen towers, including the striking 30-meter octagonal Espantaperros Tower, corachas for water defense, and bent-access gates like Capitel and Alpéndiz. 

Once housing a population within its 8-hectare oval enclosure, a grand mosque later converted to a church, and elite residences, it served as a taifa stronghold until the Christian conquest in 1230 and was declared a historic monument in 1931.