Hello again! This is the church of Francisco of Assissi in Tarifa, several centuries old and situated at a place where one of the old moorish mosquees were. The old church was restored in the 18th century for the first time. History of Tarifa: Tarifa is -as other villages in south Spain - very old. Archeologists told us, that this settlement was found ca. 1000 years before christ by phoenizian sailors, as they did in CADIZ, too. This place here was known as "End of the World", called "The Colums of Herakles". The antique world ended here; only phoenizian sailors were able and tough enough to sail far on along the shores of the Spain peninsula - till the Cornwall peninsula in Great Britain, were they dealed with minerals from the cornish tin mines for antique bronce metal. In roman times the settlement of Tarifa was named TINGENTERA, and it was only one of a whole row of roman settlements along the shore. The roman settlement BAELO CLAUDIA some miles away is the one with the finest condition in whole southern Spain. Roman shipowners traded in the same way as the phoenizians did before. In 710 a.C. arrived 400 Berbermen at the beaches of Tarifa. Their leader was TARIF abu ZURA. They came from the other side of the Gibraltar, from Morocco. In the next year came more of them, and from around Tarifa, Gibraltar and Algeciras started an invasion that made 3/4 of Spain in only four years a part of the islamic world. This was the begin of "AL-ANDALUS". The village here was named "Tarifa" after Tarif abu Zura. Another definition could be the arabic word "TARAF" which means "end" (of the world). The medina of Tarifa is ca. 1000 years old, and the moorish castle near the harbor was built in the 10th century by the Kalif of Cordoba, ABD - AR - RAHMAN III.. It protected Tarifa and the Street of Gibraltar by vikings, sea - pirates and members of the "Fatimids", other Berber tribes from Morocco. In 1292 Tarifa was conquered by a christian army under their king PANCHO IV. "The Brave" and the moorish times ended. Mosquees were replaced by good christian churches like this here, often at the same place. After the detection of America in 1492 Tarifa and other villages became very important as harbours for trading with the new colonies. Inhabitants of the city served as soldiers, sailors, and many of them were among the colonists who settled in the new american colonies. When Spain lost its colonies in the early 19th century, Tarifa and other villages at the Costa de la Luz went into a great crisis. Mean industry was now the fishing and the industries around the fish. At the middle of the 20th century tourism became more and more important. Since 1980 the tourism is the most important business for Tarifa City. Today modern Tarifa has 17 000 inhabitants. Most of them live outside the Medina in modern suburbian structures. The old moorish core is well conserved meanwhile and is famous for its night life. Thanks for your interest, friends, tomorrow something about "Tarifan Nights"! Thanks for your interest, your nice comments and the fact that you waste your time here! Please feel free to send some new comments, they are all welcome and helpful. Pic was taken in October 2013.