Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis de Santa Cruz,…
July 1568 CE
Álvaro de Bazán, Marquis de Santa Cruz, had in 1563 built the fort of Santa-Cruz, strategically placed at the top of a mountain, l'Aïdour, more than one thousand feet above the sea, directly to the west of the city of Oran.
Pedro Garcerán de Borja, Grand Master of the Order of Montesa, is captain of Oran when, on July 14, 1568, John of Austria (the illegitimate son of Charles I and thus the paternal half-brother of King Philip II), leads a flotilla of thirty-three galleys against the Algerians.