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Castle-Fortress of Santa Pola

Santa Pola, El Baix Vinalopó, Alicante

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Castle-Fortress of Santa Pola

Monument · Santa Pola, El Baix Vinalopó, Alicante

The castle-fortress of Santa Pola, on the plaza Glorieta, was built in 1557 by Italian engineers commissioned by the viceroy of Valencia Bernardino de Cárdenas, to protect sailors from the Barbary attacks frequent in the 16th and 17th centuries; today, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural in 1993 (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), it is a Cultural Centre and houses the Museo del Mar and the Museo de la Pesca. It is a square-plan fortress with two bastions and two turrets at the corners, typical of Renaissance military architecture: one of them served as the duke's palace until the 18th century, while the other two corners house the Bastion of the Duke and the Bastion of the King. Inside, the parade ground, the cistern and the chapel of the Virgin of Loreto, patron saint of the town, are preserved.

Photo: Enrique Íñiguez Rodríguez (Qoan) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

What to see and do in Santa Pola