Zafra is a municipality and town in the province of Badajoz, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. It is strategically located on the roads between Badajoz and Seville and Badajoz and Córdoba, south of the so-called Tierra de Barros, a fertile agricultural area. It is the administrative seat of the judicial district of Zafra and the industrial centre of the Zafra-Río Bodión region. The municipal area covers 62.6 km² and has 16.711 inhabitants (INE 2024).

The city’s urban layout is organized around the historic medieval town centre, which is laid out along a north-south axis (Calle Tetúan, Plaza Grande, Calle Sevilla) and has an approximately oval shape. Behind the city walls, a ring road was laid out, comprising Avenida Campo del Rosario, Calle Fernando Moreno Márquez, Calle Campo Marín, Plaza España, Calle López Asme and Avenida Fuente del Maestre. The area to the southeast of the historic centre received several infrastructure and housing projects in the second half of the 20th century and was the main direction of expansion for Zafra during that period. Just before the Civil War, land to the east of C/ López Asme was allocated for a school complex consisting of three buildings, of which only the Primary School Pedro de Valencia was built. After the conflict, part of the land was allocated to the Guardia Civil Barracks and the Health Centre. The expansion continued throughout the 1980s, with the neighbourhoods of Barriada de la Luz, Barriada del Príncipe, Lonja de Contratación de Ganado, Hogar del Pensionista and Hacienda. Another important area of expansion was between Avenida de la Estación and the Badajoz-Córdoba road, where the Santa Brígida neighbourhood and the Juan XXIII Primary School were built in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The structuring of public facilities along roads is very common in Zafra, as can be seen in the cases of the Special Education Centre and the Cristo del Rosario Secondary School on the road to Los Santos de Maimona, or the Sports Complex on the national road, among others.

Zafra has a tradition of fairs and markets dating back to the Middle Ages, which continues today with the Zafra International Livestock Fair, reflected in the city's urban planning in the large Fairgrounds east of the Badajoz-Córdoba road.