The Castle of Zahara de los Atunes and Palace of Jadraza is a medieval castle on Spain's coast. In 1294, King Sancho IV of Castile granted a licence to Don Alonso Pérez de Guzmán to build traps for tuna fishing in reward for his heroic defense of Tarifa. Guzman fisheries in Zahara de los Atunes and Conil de la Frontera were for centuries the most productive in Europe provoking the development of important auxiliary buildings.
The Palace served three functions: as a fortified castle to protect against Barbary pirates, a residential palace during the Tuna Season and a processing plant to deal with the tuna. Its location at a strategic point of the Strait of Gibraltar has been given prominence in numerous historical events, and it maintains a continued presence in coastal mapping. In the twentieth century the building was used by the fishing industry before becoming a barracks.
Building is a square structure defined by four defensive walls with parapet surmounted with a narrow walkway. In the north-west corner is the so-called Torre de Poniente which has an inner chamber beneath a high domed roof also with a parapet. In the north-east are the remains of de la Torre de Levante. Both towers were designed as corbelled spaces to overlook the defensive curtain walls.
The main gateway is located in the west wall, the two sea gates are in the south, which originally also provided access to large patio inner enclosure of the building. In the twentieth century 'New Gate' was added in the north wall, where there are also various other piercings introduced for practical reasons as the use of the building developed over time.
The factory is made of regular masonry blocks with lime grout and pebbles. The corners boast reinforced stonework. The three original stone doors were of generous proportions with arches and keystones . At the sea gates, two separate buttresses of considerable thickness are arranged inward to reinforce them in their defensive mission.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.