Antequera - Real Colegiata de San Sebastián

Antequera was known during Roman times as "Anticaria" and had existed already centuries, when the Romans took over the area from the Carthaginians after the Punic Wars. During the fall of the Roman Empire, the area fell to the Vandals in the 410s. They were attacked by the Visigoths, who incarporated it into the Visigothic Kingdom.

During the Arab invasion Anticaria was conquered around 716 and, when the Reconquista rolled south, it became one of the northern cities of the remaining Nasrid kingdom of Granada. Fortifications were built and a Moorish castle, named Alcazaba, erected. For about two hundred years the Medina, located inside the Alcazaba, was attacked repeatedly. In 1410, an army led by Prince Ferdinand of Aragon conquered it.

Antequera became part of the Kingdom of Castile, the Muslims were driven out. The city became a Catholic fortress against the Nasrid kingdom of Granada, and a base for continuing conquest. After Granada, the last Moorish city, capitulated in 1492, Antequera began to recover from the centuries of fighting.

Real Colegiata de San Sebastián, located in the city center, was built between 1540 and 1549. The massive brick tower, 60 metres high, one of Antequera´s landmarks, was built between 1701 and 1706. It is crowned by a golden weather flag called "El Angelote", which is almost three and a half metres high.