Melilla is, with Ceuta, one of Spain's two autonomous cities in North Africa. It lies on the Mediterranean coast of eastern Morocco, at the foot of Cape Three Forks, about 150 kilometres as the crow flies from the Andalusian coast, and borders only Morocco by land, which claims sovereignty over it. It has about 87,000 inhabitants, mostly of Spanish and Catholic culture, with a large Berber-speaking (Tamazight) Muslim community and long-established Jewish and Hindu communities.
History
Founded by the Phoenicians as Rusadir, then held by Romans, Vandals, Byzantines and Arabs, Melilla was occupied in 1497 on behalf of the Catholic Monarchs by Pedro de Estopiñán, five years after the fall of Granada (see the history of Spain): it has therefore been Spanish longer than several regions of today's Spain, such as Navarre. For centuries it was a military stronghold, besieged many times. In July 1936 it was from Melilla that the military uprising that started the civil war began. Since 1995 it has been an autonomous city.
What to see
- Melilla la Vieja, the fortified citadel on a headland over the sea, with four enclosures of walls built between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, gates, bastions, cisterns, the church of the Purísima Concepción and several museums.
- The modernist centre, one of Spain's richest after Barcelona: Catalan architect Enrique Nieto, who had worked with Gaudí on Casa Milà in Barcelona, designed dozens of buildings in Melilla in the early twentieth century, around Plaza de España and Avenida Juan Carlos I.
- Hernández park, the markets, the central mosque and the synagogues, witnesses to the different communities.
- The town beaches and the seafront promenade.
Festivals
The city's day is 17 September, anniversary of the Spanish arrival in 1497. In early September the Feria honours the Virgen de la Victoria, Melilla's patron, while the Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities have their own festivals, some of them official holidays.
Getting there
Melilla has an airport with flights from Málaga, Madrid, Almería and other Spanish cities, and ferry links with Málaga, Almería and Motril, crossings of several hours. The city lies outside the EU customs union; you need a passport to cross into Morocco. Below you will find the map and the municipality profile.