La Torre Almoraima, a pesar de su aspecto, esconde el edificio más antiguo del municipio

The Almoraima Towe, despite its look, hides the oldest building of the township. It is a beacon or signal tower, built by the Muslims on a hill located 200 meters far from Almoraima railway station.

 

It was used as a tower-fortress, in the case of invasion, and as an element transmitter of news. By means of a campfire lighted on its flat roof, it was warned to other towers or castles of the surroundings about any risk.

 

The collapse process suffered by other towers of the area was interrupted in this case at the end of the 19th Century, by erecting, attached to this tower, the headquarters of the Civil Guard, using the tower as a prison.

 

It has a square floor and walls of one meter and a half and half meter of thickness on the ground level, reaching the 14 meters tall. The exterior shape remains the same from the past, although it is disguised below a layer of cement and lime.

Its perfect disguising has lead to some investigators to think it was demolished in order to built on its soil the headquarters building. Luckily, the old fortified tower, the oldest building that keeps erected in it, still preserves its defiant structure.

The writings from 1603 say that the Monastery that bears its name was erected in front of a tower called La Almoraima.