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1 of 18José Antonio González (front row, second from left) re-enacts every year. He jokes that he chose to join the Moors over the Christians because they had better costumes.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
2 of 18Girls dressed as medieval Christians marching in a parade on the opening night of the festival pass by a young boy dressed as a Moor standing on one of the walls of the city.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
3 of 18A boy dressed as a medieval Moor.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
4 of 18A woman dressed as a medieval Moor.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
5 of 18People dressed as Moors pass by others dressed as Christian standard-bearers.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
6 of 18A man dressed as a medieval Moor marches in a parade on the last day of the festival.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
7 of 18Women dressed in Moorish costume march on the last day of the festival.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
8 of 18A boy plays clarinet in one of the bands on parade.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
9 of 18A Bandolero poses with his gun.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
10 of 18A boy dressed as a medieval Moor drinks a mojito on the beach.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
11 of 18A woman dressed as a medieval Moor.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
12 of 18A man dressed as a medieval Moor on horseback.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
13 of 18A belly-dancer performs with a Moorish scimitar on the beach.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
14 of 18Three Bandoleros by the beach.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
15 of 18A man dressed as a Moor on horseback.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
16 of 18Two men dressed as Moors on horseback.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
17 of 18A man dressed as a medieval Christian walks towards his horse.Lucia Herrero for TIME -
18 of 18A Christian sword and Moorish scimitar made of lights hang over the town of Mojácar.Lucia Herrero for TIME
This is the fifth installment in a five-part series from TIME International’s annual Summer Journey issue, Travels Through Islam: Discovering a world of change and challenge in the footsteps of the 14th century explorer Ibn Battuta.
There may be no more curious remnant of the Muslim kingdom that Ibn Battuta knew as al-Andalus than the festival of Moros y Cristianos—Moors and Christians. Commemorated in towns throughout Spain, it enlists entire populations into elaborately costumed “battalions” to re-enact the medieval surrender of Spain’s last Muslim rulers to the conquering Catholic kings.
TIME sent photographer Lucia Herrero to photograph the festival in Mojácar, in Andalusia — three days of parades, competitions, music, and performance — where she found that the country’s Muslim past is woven into its present in ways both obvious and subtle.
Lucia Herrero is a freelance photographer based in Barcelona. Her long-term project TRIBES will be screened at the Belfast Photo Festival, and the work will be collected in her first book, coming out in September.
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