, which was inaugurated on the 13th of July 1940 and still stands. The Llano Amarillo monument, a tall obelisk, is totally abandoned, but despite the deterioration the shield symbols of the Falange and Imperial Eagle remain.
When Spain recognized the independence of Spanish Morocco in 1956, Ceuta and the otherplazas de soberanía remained under Spanish rule as they were considered integral parts of the Spanish state - which Morocco strongly disputed. Culturally, modern Ceuta is part of the Spanish region of Andalusia. Indeed, it was attached to the province of Cádiz until 1925 — the Spanish coast being only 20 km away. It is a cosmopolitan city, with a large ethnicBerber Muslim minority as well as Sephardic Jewish and Hindu minorities.
On November 5, 2007, King Juan Carlos I visited the city, sparking great enthusiasm from the local population and protests from the Moroccan government. It was the first time a Spanish head of state had visited Ceuta in 80 years.
Ceuta (and Melilla) has declared the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice, as an official public holiday from 2010 onwards. It is the first time a non-Christian religious festival is officially celebrated in Spain since the Reconquista.
Ecclesiastical history
The Catholic Diocese of Ceuta existed from 1417 to 1879. It was a suffragan of the Patriarchate of Lisbon until 1675, with the end of theIberian Union, when Ceuta chose to remain linked to the king of Spain. Since then it has been a suffragan of the archbishopric of Seville. The Diocese of Tanger was suppressed and incorporated to that of Ceuta in 1570.
In 1851, upon the signature of the concordat between the Holy See and Spain, the diocese of Ceuta was agreed to be suppressed, being combined into the diocese of Cádiz y Ceuta (up to then diocese of Cádiz y Algeciras), whose bishop usually was the apostolic administrator of Ceuta. The agreement was
