Its municipality covers an area of 1, Winegrowing has long been, particularly upon the transition to modern agro-extractivism in the mid 18th century, the main drive of the economy of Jerez. Other festivals in the city un in nclude the Feria de Jerez and the Holy Week. The classical Latin name of Asta Regia , unrelated to the present name, referred to an ancient city now found within Mesas de Asta, a rural district approximately 11 km 6.
Frontera ' frontier ' referred to its location on the border between the Moorish and Christian regions on the Iberian Peninsula during the 13th century. The city's main football team continues to use the old spelling, Xerez.
Traces of human presence in the area date from the upper Neolithic, and humans have inhabited Jerez de la Frontera since at least the Copper or Neolithic Age , but the identity of the first natives remains unclear. The first major protohistoric settlement in the area around the third millennium BC is attributed to the Tartessians. After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire , the Vandals and the Visigoths ruled the area until the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in the early 8th century.
In the 11th century it briefly became the seat of an independent taifa. Some years later 'Abdun ibn Muhammad united it with Arcos de la Frontera and ruled both ca.
In it was annexed to Seville. From to the region of Arcos and Jerez briefly operated as an emirate under the dependency of Granada , led by Abu'l-Qasim Ahyal. Later the Almohads conquered the city. In the 12th and 13th centuries Jerez underwent a period of great development, building its defense system and setting the current street layout of the old town.
