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Alcazaba of Marbella

Diputación de Málaga
Etapa 31. GSM. Alcazaba de Marbella

Alcazaba of Marbella

Zip Code 29600
Monuments and Art > The Castle and the Wall

This Caliphal castle, built in the 9th or early 10th century, occupies a large section of Marbella’s old town centre near the Plaza de Los Naranjos and the Iglesia de la Encarnación, the town’s oldest church.

It was built using materials from an earlier Roman construction, possibly from Salduba, as witnessed both by the large blocks of stone that make up the lower sections of the building and the presence of three Ionic capitals in the walls which are used as simple stones.

The monument itself, which was officially declared a Heritage Site of Cultural Interest in 1949, still retains one of its towers, though it is in desperate need of restoration. Historians believe that the hole at the top of the tower is the legacy of the battle waged by the Catholic Monarchs in order to capture the town.

The school Nuestra Señora del Carmen, which stands wall-to-wall with the southern face and main entrance of the tower, stands on a site occupied many centuries ago by the weapons yard, and the remains of the tower can only be accessed from the school itself. The northern face of the castle wall still bears traces of the houses which once stood adjacent to them and which over time were demolished to return this historical treasure to its former glory.

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