Alumbres Watchtower

Alumbres Watchtower – Nijar

The Alumbres Watchtower is located next to the Rambla del Playazo, between Rodalquilar and the El Playazo Beach, in the Andalusian municipality of Nijar, at the Cabo de Gata Nijar Natural Park, Almeria.

The Alumbres Watchtower was built in 1510. The location of the military fortification was due to the defense of the Rodalquilar Valley, wich was the object of numerous attacks by the Barbary pirates, who took advantage of their incursions to obtain water, mineral and prisoners to be sold as slaves. Its name come from the “alumbres”, sulfates of aluminum and potassium, that were exploited in Rodalquilar. Such “alumbres” were used in various treatments of dyeing, stamping, tanning and paper.

This fortification proved insufficient to contain an attack by the pirates in 1520, during which the poputaltion was destroyed and its inhabitants capture as slaves, which prevented mining activity for half a century. After the definitive abandonment of the alumbres mines in 1590, the tower was used as a barrage for troops during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 1764 the defense of th valley was assumed by the nearby battery of San Ramon, one of the nine coastal fortresses that Carlos III had built from Almeria to Malaga.

The fortress of Renaissance style consists of a tower of 14 meters high with six rooms vaulted on three levels that are communicated by a spiral staircase. It is surrounded by an exterior wall reinforced with cubes. During its time of operation it counted on a moat and drawbridge.

Fuente: iaph