PREVIOUS HISTORY

The fortress could have been built in the Punic (recent Phoenician)times, but up until now, no actual structures have been found, although some ceramic fragments have. At this stage of the arqueological investigation it can be affirmed that it was a roman fortress pointing out the following remains which confirm it: remains of a wall and door facing the west wind. Also have been found two cisterns and a small necropolis of the Roman Decline in the interior of the building and remains of rooms next to a medieval wall facing the East wind.
The fortress, during the arab time has been caught up in events which geographers and especially historians have narrated. The coming of Abderraman I, the revolt of Omar ben Hafsun, the various events during the Reign of the Taifas in Granada, the coming of the almoravides and almohades and very important the Nazarin Reign in Granada produced important events in which the town of Almuñecar and its fortress played an active part. The fortress in the nazarin time ,as well as being used as a recreational palace for the Sultans from Granada was famous for its prison or dungeon where some dettroned Sultans were imprisoned ministers fallen from grace, or military chiefs whose influence inspired terror. Finally the fortress was handed over by the caid Ibn al-Hay to the Catholic Kings in December 1489 after a defeat. After the surrender it would be a christian fortress, receiving the name of the holy patron of the town, undergoing a series of restorations and remodifications, the first being in the time of Charles V when the castle was extended with the building of a ditch and a draw-bridge, and the front entrance with four circular turrents. In 1808 during the war of Independence, it was in the hands of the french and was bombed by the English fleet, remaining in a ruinous state and practically without any defensive worth, so that in 1834 it was made into the cementary of the town and used as such until very recently.