CASTILLO DE DOÑA BLANCA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

It is a mound excavated between 1979 and 1995 in which remains of walls, houses, a Punic river port (the largest in the Mediterranean) and a necropolis have been found, belonging to a Phoenician city whose occupation ranges from the 8th century to the III BC. Therefore, this city, together with Cádiz and the castle hill (Chiclana), is the oldest Phoenician complex that has been found so far in the Iberian Peninsula and therefore has a singular importance in the panorama of Phoenician colonization in the western Mediterranean.

Its exceptional degree of conservation (the only Phoenician city that has been preserved intact to this day) makes the site a key piece for future research on the establishment of the Phoenicians in the Bay of Cádiz and their relationship with the indigenous peoples of the Lower Andalusia. One of its highlights, among other contents, is one of the oldest wineries in the world, preserved in its entirety.

The castle of Doña Blanca is located next to this site, so named because, according to tradition, Doña Blanca de Borbón suffered captivity there. It is a tower built in the 14th or 15th century to guard the Bay of Cádiz, and was also used as a hermitage.