Tabarca settled here. The islet was renamed Nova Tabarca ("New Tabarca" in both Valencian and Latin). Thus a settlement was created by royal edict on this uninhabited island which the North African corsaries had previously used as a platform for raids on the Levantine coast. On their arrival, the Genoese were first moved to Alicante, where they lived temporarily in the Jesuit School, empty after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain. Finally, the Genoese were moved to the island together with a Spanish garrison. The military engineer Fernando Méndez Ras planned a fortified town and walls, bulwarks, warehouses and barracks
Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera (; Berber language: "Badis"; Arabic: "jazīrat ghumara"), in ancient times Badis or Bades, is a Spanish rock ("plaza de soberanía") in the west of the Mediterranean Sea, connected to the Moroccan shore by a sandy isthmus. It is also connected to a smaller islet to the east, la Isleta, by a rocky isthmus. It is one of several "peñones", or rock-fortresses, on the coast of Northern Africa. Vélez de la Gomera, along with la Isleta, are administered by the Spanish central government, and have a population consisting only