Melilla is an autonomous Spanish city located in North Africa, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea on the northern border with Morocco. It extends over an area of 12 km2. It has a fortress (Melilla La Vieja) built between the 16th and 17th centuries, equipped with warehouses, cisterns, bastions, moats, forts, caves, mines, chapels (one of them, the only Gothic religious work in Africa) and hospitals. , which make it the most complete on this shore of the Mediterranean, apart from the neo-medieval exterior forts, built during the 19th century. The architectural heritage of the city, located in the so-called Ensanche of Melilla, is considered one of the best exponents of the Spanish modernist style of the early 20th century.