Zafra - Santa María de la Candelaria

In ancient times, Zafra was located on the Via de la Plata, a road fortified by the Romans between Hispalis (Seville) and Asturica Augusta (Astorga). There are ruins of several Roman estates in the area. In the early 8th century the region was taken by the Moors, whose rule under the Umayyads, Almoravids, and Almohads lasted until the 13th century.

During the Reconquista, Zafra was captured twice, first in 1229 by Alfonso IX, and then in 1241 definitively by Ferdinand III. The area was then repopulated ("repoblación") by settlers from the north of the peninsula. In 1394, Henry III handed over the towns of Feria and Zafra to Gómez Suárez de Figueroa, the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago.

The tower of Santa María de la Candelaria, seen from the Plaza Grande.

Until the mid-16th century, the original church of Santa María de la Candelaria, along with its attached cemetery, stood in the current Plaza Grande. Count Gomes II Suárez de Figueroa then asked Pope Alexander VI. for a bull to convert the old synagogue, which had already been converted into a church, into a parish seat, a bull which he received in 1500.