Mediterranean coastal castles — from Gibralfaro to the Alcazaba of Almeria

• Alcazaba — a Muslim fortress-palace inside a city. Malaga and Almeria both have one. Gibralfaro is the hill castle linked to Malaga’s by a wall.
• Barbary corsairs — North African raiders who attacked this coast from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The round towers and small forts at Pulpi, Balerma, Carchuna and Sabinillas were built against them.
• Atalaya — a watchtower. The coast is dotted with them; most are a stop for the view, not an interior visit.

Start in Malaga city. The Alcazaba and Gibralfaro are the pair above the harbour: palace-fortress below, hill castle and view above. That visit, including the Hammudid rooms and the walled climb, is on the Islamic route of Malaga. On this page they are the western end of the coastal line. The monastery of La Trinidad is a later house in the city, not part of the fortress.

East along the shore, Velez-Malaga keeps its hill fortress above the old town. The Islamic page covers that keep with the Axarquia minarets. Here the coastal extra is the castle of El Marques at Torre del Mar, a smaller work on the water. Easy from the Costa if the city alcazaba is already done.

• Alcazaba of Malaga — map
• Castle of Gibralfaro — map
• Fortress of Velez-Malaga — map
• Convent of the Claras, Velez-Malaga — map

Salobrena is the castle on a rock above a white town and the cane fields. The fabric goes back to the tenth century and was enlarged under the Nasrids. Granada’s kings used it as a summer house and as a prison for sultans they had deposed. Walk the ramparts for the sea and the hill, then the streets below.

Almunecar’s castle of San Miguel sits over the old town. The hill was used in Phoenician and Roman times; the fortress you walk is mainly Islamic and later Christian work, with a moat and a bridge. The church of the Encarnacion is the parish below. Motril’s castle of Carchuna is an eighteenth-century coastal fort against corsairs, on a low hill by the water. The convent church of Las Nazarenas is in the town, not at the fort.

• Castle of Salobrena — map
• Castle of San Miguel, Almunecar — map
• Church of the Encarnacion, Almunecar — map
• Castle of Carchuna, Motril — map

The Alcazaba of Almeria is the great fortress of the eastern coast. Abd al-Rahman III began it in the tenth century; it grew under the Nasrids. That building — and the old mosque at San Juan — is on the Islamic route of Granada and Almeria. Give it a morning if you are already in the city. The convent of Las Puras is a separate house.

East of the city the coast of Cabo de Gata and Carboneras is a line of later batteries, not a second alcazaba. The castle of San Francisco de Paula is now the lighthouse at the cape. Carboneras keeps San Andres, ordered by Philip II in 1559: a square stone fort with round towers. Mesa Roldan is a small fortress on the headland. Further north, San Juan de los Terreros at Pulpi is an eighteenth-century work on a hill over the sea. Nijar’s district holds San Pedro and San Jose; Guardias Viejas at Punta de los Baños, near Dalias, and the tower at Balerma belong to the same anti-corsair chain. La Rabita is another watch on the Granada–Almeria shore. Add one or two towers if you are already on that road.

• Alcazaba of Almeria — map
• Convent of Las Puras — map
• Castle of San Francisco de Paula (lighthouse) — map
• Castle of San Andres, Carboneras — map
• Fortress of Mesa Roldan — map
• Castle of San Juan de los Terreros — map
• Tower of Balerma — map

West of Malaga, at Sabinillas in the municipality of Manilva, the castle of San Luis is an eighteenth-century fort built to protect the shore from Barbary raids. It is a coastal block near the beach, not an alcazaba. Worth a look if you are already on that stretch of the Costa; it does not replace Gibralfaro.

• Castle of San Luis de Sabinillas — map