With an area of 17.000 hectares of cork trees and situated on the last foothills of “La Serranía de Ronda”, Cortes de la Frontera is a cosy town with a population of 3.700 inhabitants that are distributed in three urban centres: Cortes de la Frontera, Cañada del Real Tesoro and the district of El Colmenar.
Apart from the passing of the Phoenicians, in the Eleventh and Twelfth B.C., and the Greek occupation, its first settlers were the Romans, who named the town Cortex, which means “Cuirass”, meaning “protection”, kept by the Arabs and which has remained so to date. From Roman times, there are two urban centres of great importance: The ruins of what was the city known as “Saeponia” or “Seponta” and the remains of the city known as “Cortes el Viejo”, very near the town. Although it was conquered by San Fernando in 1248,it was reconquered by the Arabs until the its definitive fall in 1485.
Its most significant monuments are the town hall building, from 1784, the bullring, from 1894 and restored in 1921, the Church of “Ntra. Sra. Del Rosario” hailing from the end of the Eighteenth century and “La Casa de Piedra”, from Paleo- Christian origin and dating from the Sixth and Seventeenth Centuries. The most important festivities of the town are “Las Fiestas de Agosto”, in honour of its Patron Saints, San Roque and San Sebastián, and the Romeria which is celebrated at the beginning of June, in honour of its Patron, “Nuestra Señora del Rosario”.