Vejer De La Frontera - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

VEJER DE LA FRONTERA, a town of southern Spain, in the province of Cadiz, on the right bank of the river Barbate and on the Cadiz-Tarifa railway. Pop. (1900) 11,298. Vejer de la Frontera occupies a low hill overlooking the Straits of Gibraltar and surrounded by orchards and orange groves. It contains several ancient churches and convents, and the architecture of many of its houses recalls the period of Moorish rule, which lasted from 711 until the town was captured by St Ferdinand of Castile in 1248. Agriculture and fruit-farming are the chief industries; fighting bulls are also bred in the neighbourhood.