Sohail Castle
Castillo Sohail
Sohail Castle
Sohail castle is located in he heart of Fuengirola river mouth, on a small isolated hill that rises 38 meters above sea level. This circumstance makes it a privileged viewpoint of a wide coastal strip surrounded by the Sierra de Mijas and included in the present day town of Fuengirola.
The magnificent geographical conditions of this place have allowed, since ancient times , the continueous settling of Punic and Roman population. On the ruins of their settlements in the Caliphate period a first tower was built, perhaps a watchtower.
Later, in the twelfth centry, the Almovarids built a defensive enclosure against the Christian army, that was in full offensive against the Moorish kingdom of Granada.
From that moment the military fortress underwent an inevitable process of readjustment of its architecture that would gradually give way to its present appearance: replacing the turning entrance by a direct one, demolishing one of the east towers to built up a platform for the placement of guns, or rearranging the southwest corner of the wall to turn it into an archer's wall after its blasting by the Napoleonic army during the war of independence.
A few years later the castle lost its military function and was sold at public auction. The transition to civil use took it a period of abandonment that would not be interrupted onto the second half of the last century.
The works carried out in recent years by the school workshop have enabled the Sohail Castle to be recovered as a historical meeting point for the people of Fuengirola and as a space where different cultural events are currently held.
Sohail Castle
Castillo Sohail
Sohail Castle
Sohail castle is located in he heart of Fuengirola river mouth, on a small isolated hill that rises 38 meters above sea level. This circumstance makes it a privileged viewpoint of a wide coastal strip surrounded by the Sierra de Mijas and included in the present day town of Fuengirola.
The magnificent geographical conditions of this place have allowed, since ancient times , the continueous settling of Punic and Roman population. On the ruins of their settlements in the Caliphate period a first tower was built, perhaps a watchtower.
Later, in the twelfth centry, the Almovarids built a defensive enclosure against the Christian army, that was in full offensive against the Moorish kingdom of Granada.
From that moment the military fortress underwent an inevitable process of readjustment of its architecture that would gradually give way to its present appearance: replacing the turning entrance by a direct one, demolishing one of the east towers to built up a platform for the placement of guns, or rearranging the southwest corner of the wall to turn it into an archer's wall after its blasting by the Napoleonic army during the war of independence.
A few years later the castle lost its military function and was sold at public auction. The transition to civil use took it a period of abandonment that would not be interrupted onto the second half of the last century.
The works carried out in recent years by the school workshop have enabled the Sohail Castle to be recovered as a historical meeting point for the people of Fuengirola and as a space where different cultural events are currently held.