Castle of the Moors, Cartagena, Spain

The Castillo de los Moros was built in the 18th century in what is now the Santa Lucía neighborhood. The castle is located on the hill of the Moors, from which it takes its name, and which, prior to its fortification, had proven to be a strategic position for the defense of the square, when during the war of the Spanish succession it was used by the Philippian artillery of the Duke of Berwick to end the Austracist resistance of the Castle of Concepción (1706).

The construction was designed by the Mirobrigense military engineer Juan Martín Cermeño in the context of the process of improvement of military structures in Cartagena in the reign of Carlos III , and that was motivated by the appointment in 1726 of the city as capital of the Mediterranean Maritime Department. The works were finally directed by the Croatian Mateo Vodopich between the years 1773 and 1778.

The castle of the Moors was ceded by the Ministry of War to the Ministry of Finance on June 19, 1921. In 1925, Mayor Alfonso Torres López proposed to locate in it the jail of the judicial district , but ended up rejecting the idea in favor of a plot in San Antonio Abad. The possession of the fort would definitively pass to the Cartagena City Council on September 24, 1929, without any use or care being given to it since then, which is why its current state is of prolonged deterioration.

Architecture

The castle rises to an altitude of 56 meters above sea level and was built following the parameters of the neoclassicism of the French-speaking Spanish school. On many occasions it has been referred to as a hornabeque , although there is consensus that it is a crowned work.

The building was designed to protect the bastioned front of the Hospital de Marina and at the same time the Gates of San José, one of the three monumental entrances to the city, which was reduced to the old town surrounded by the walls of Carlos III.

References:

second.wiki

Castles and fortifications in Spain

User Reviews

Caspar Dechmann (21 months ago)
The castle is completely fenced off. There is an incredible amount of dirt everywhere and if you approach from the north across very poor neighborhood. So it may not be worth the effort to come up.

Jim “Gazoopi” Broughton (2 years ago)
Only in Spain could such a national historical treasure be so left to go to ruin. It has a huge potential, and is huge, but has no information plaques, nothing except a lot of dumped rubbish. What a shame.

Ken Eberly (4 years ago)
Wonderful very old Moorish castle, lots of walking but many good cafes nearby.

Barbara (5 years ago)
A place with a huge potential but totally unused. You can feel even sorry while you can these magnificent walls and see that these are only getting older and more destroyed. It's a huge pity that smaller Castillo de la Concepción has a reception and beautiful birds around while this poor Moorish Castle had trashes and dirt around while it's bigger and has many options to use it as a touristic spot.

Árni Rúnarsson (5 years ago)
The surroundings around the castle is not very attractive, abandoned houses and really messy.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright gwpics

Historic Site of the week

Abbey of Saint-Georges

Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.

The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).

Castle of the Moors

Architecture

Address

Details

More Information

Rating

Interesting Sites Nearby

User Reviews

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Finest Norman castles in Italy

Exploring the History of Northern Poland

Discovering Slovenia's Historic Wonders

Historic Site of the week

Abbey of Saint-Georges