The city has a degree of eminence, crowned as it is by the ruins of the Moorish castle Alcazaba of Badajoz and overlooking the Guadiana river, which flows between the castle-hill and the powerfully armed fort of San Cristobal.

[7] Badajoz attained importance during the reign of Moorish rulers such as the Umayyad caliphs of Córdoba, and the Almoravids and Almohads of North Africa.

[13] Shortly after its conquest, in the time of Alfonso X the Wise of Castile, a bishopric see was established and work was initiated on the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista.

[25] The Portuguese, feeling that an attack by French troops stationed in Ciudad Rodrigo was imminent, agreed to cede Olivenza to Spain and declared that it would close its ports to British ships.

[11] A British and Portuguese army, commanded by Marshal Beresford, endeavoured to retake it and on 16 May 1811 defeated a relieving force at Albuera, but the siege was abandoned the following month.

"[31] Pedro Caro, 3rd Marquis of la Romana, died at Badajoz on 23 January 1811 in a fit of apoplexy, seized at the moment when he was leaving his house to concert a plan of military operations with Lord Wellington.

Volume 23 of the Museum of Foreign Literature, Science and Art, published in 1833, described Badajoz as "one of the richest and most beautiful towns in the south of Spain, whose inhabitants had witnessed its siege in silent terror for one and twenty days, and who had been shocked by the frightful massacre.

[12] The troops who committed the killings at Badajoz were under the command of general Juan Yagüe, who, after the civil war, was appointed Minister of Aviation by Franco.

However, the historic monuments in the town and also in Mérida were major attractions to visitors, leading to the growth of tourism, and in recent years there has been some industrial development.

An economic and cultural centre, it has a wide range of markets from fish and various food stalls to health shops,"[54] The Old Town area has been affected by this trade fair but is slowly recovering, with the opening of new stores.

In summer 2007, the project to build the new 38 million euro headquarters of the Caja de Badajoz was made public,[56] which began to be built in October 2008 and is currently in use.

[61] In 1937, the municipal architect, Rodolfo Martinez, renovated the building, with particular emphasis on stylistic uniformity, expanding its towers and changing its decorative elements.

The Alcazaba, a Moorish citadel built in the 9th century by Ibn Marwan, was fortified by the Almohad caliph Abu Yaqub Yusuf in 1169, although there are traces of earlier work dating back to 913 and 1030.

The building attached to it, built in the 16th century called La Galera, once served as city hall, then a prison and finally it is now the Archaeological Museum.

[63][12][64] The Vauban military fort was built in the 17th century during the war between Spain and Portugal that lasted from 1640 to 1668 as a defense measure to counter-attack forces entering the city from the northwest and southeast.

It was founded in 1518 by Ms. Leonor de Vega i Figueroa, under the blessing of Pope Leo X, and belonged to the jurisdiction of the Franciscan province of San Miguel.

Plant species extant in the gardens include cinnamomum camphora, dichondra repens, ceiba speciosa, and trees of the myrtle, laurel, orange, lemon, and pomegranate.

It is 2,000 square metres (22,000 sq ft) in size, with more than 1,200 paintings and sculptures from the 16th to the 20th century representing over 350 artists such as Zurbarán, Luis de Morales, Caravaggio, [75] Flemish painters, Francisco de Goya, Felipe Checa, Torre Isunza, Eugenio Hermoso, Adelard Covarsí, Antonio Juez Nieto, Francisco Pedraja Muñoz, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí, among others.

The collections include Filipino ivories, carvings and Flemish tapestries, the tombstone of Alfonso Suárez de Figueroa, and the Custodia Procesional del Corpus of 1558.

Casa Álvarez-Buiza, a private house and commercial complex, was built in the San Juan district by Adel Franco Pinna between 1918 and 1912.

During the Arab period, burials were along the roads and near the eastern suburb of the Citadel, close to Cerro de la Muela and also in the area of Santiago bastion; these locations were noted during recent excavations.

[91] Further improvements were made during the early 21st century, when the number of spans was increased to 32 and towers were added at both ends giving a total length of 600 metres (2,000 ft).

Hailing from the city in the arts are the actors Luis Alcoriza, Manuel de Blas, the writers Arturo Barea, Vicente Barrantes Moreno, José López Prudencio, Emilio Morote Esquivel, Jesús García Calderón, the singers Antonio Hormigo, Rosa Morena, Federico Cabo, Guadiana Almena, La Caita, Porrina de Badajoz and the pianists Cristóbal Oudrid and Esteban Sánchez, and painters such as Luis de Morales, Antonio Vaquero Poblador, Felipe Checa, Adelardo Covarsí Yustas, and many others.

The classical music group Banda Municipal de Música, established in 1867, also performs at such venues in Badajoz and the wider province; as of 2013 it had 33 musicians.

Cristóbal Oudrid (1825–1877), one of the founding fathers of Spanish musical nationalism, was born in Badajoz, son of the resident military bandmaster.

[99] In 1827, Richard Alfred Davenport wrote a gushing description of the dean of the cathedral of Badajoz, remarking that he was "more learned than all the doctors of Salamanca, Coimbra, and Alcala, united; he understood all languages, living and dead, and was perfect master of every science divine.

However, in 1917 it was refurbished in the neo-Gothic style and now the convent Madres Adoratrices Esclavas del Santísimo y de la Caridad functions from here.

Parroquia de San Juan Bautista, situated in a large pink and white painted domed building dates to the 18th century, and was originally a Franciscan convent, funded by King João V of Portugal.

It is expected the station will be replaced by a new facility located at the border with Portugal with high-speed services run by the Southwest–Portuguese corridor and the Madrid–Lisbon line[broken anchor].

In August 2017 Comboios de Portugal, the Portuguese national railway company, instituted a daily service from Badajoz to Entroncamento, with connections to Lisbon and Porto.