Medina Sidonia

Medina Sidonia stands on a hill above the cultivated plains of western Andalusia. An ancient settlement that later belonged to al-Andalus, it became a Castilian town and in 1440 passed to the house of Guzmán. Five years later Juan Alonso de Guzmán received the title Duke of Medina Sidonia. The great noble house took its name from the town, though it also held extensive lands and ports elsewhere in Andalusia.