The Alcázar stands at the southern edge of the old town and is the best-preserved example of Moorish architecture in Jerez. Built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, it contains gardens, a mosque, a bathhouse, and the foundations of the original palace complex. The mosque is particularly remarkable: it remained intact through the Christian period and still shows its original mihrab and decorative plasterwork.
The gardens are cool and shaded, planted with orange trees and featuring a restored hammam where you can see the vaulted ceiling with its star-shaped apertures still intact. The camera obscura in the Torre Octagonal is a popular addition — visitors gather around the circular table to watch a slowly rotating real-time image of the city projected from above. The views from the battlements over the old town and the cathedral are worth the climb alone.