Plaza de España was remodeled in 2007, it was formerly known in the village as “La Plazuela” and is, next to the Arco de la Villa, a must step to enter or leave Conil. Strolling, you can go to Puerta de la Villa, formerly called Puerta de Vejer because this door passed the route to the neighboring town of Vejer de la Frontera. It is the only one of the four gates of the old walled city currently standing.
Resting in the middle of the square is the monument to Jose Saramago, a great poet and writer who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.
In the fourteenth century, Don Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán ordered a wall built around the city to protect its inhabitants from the continuous pirate attacks. Access into the interior of the town was accommodated through 4 gates. In the heart of the city was Plaza de Santa Catalina, which was the city center for many years. As the municipality underwent great demographic expansion, the walls became obsolete and gradually the population started occupying the land outside them. At this time, Plaza de Santa Catalina lost significance, since life no longer revolved around Plaza de Spain.
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