Torre de la Cebada: An Early Modern Watchtower in Granada, Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 3.9
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Castile, Spanish
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Tower
On this page11 sections
History
Torre de la Cebada is a watchtower in Spain, located in Los Guájares, Granada, where the municipal boundaries of Los Guájares, El Pinar, and Vélez de Benaudalla nearly meet. Standing above the Venta de la Cebada at more than 800 metres above sea level, it occupied a strategic position overlooking the Alboran Sea. The site was used as an observation point during Muslim rule, while the present building incorporates remains of a sixteenth-century watchtower constructed shortly after the conquest of Granada.
Foundation and Defensive Role
After the conquest, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Count of Tendilla, ordered a watchtower at Venta de la Cebada, between Pinos del Valle and Guájar Faragüit. The post watched the route along the Cuesta de la Cebada, which connected the surrounding settlements with Granada, and provided early warning of attacks approaching from the coast.
In 1526, orders placed 100 crossbowmen at the tower to secure the road. For many years, the post also had an alcaide, the appointed commander of a fortified position, together with a guard detachment. Guards received five reales for each watch.
Conflict and Coastal Alarms
During the second Morisco rebellion, a major sixteenth-century uprising by Muslims converted to Christianity and their descendants against forced assimilation, Morisco forces captured Torre de la Cebada. The Count of Tendilla responded by sending two captains with 300 arquebusiers, soldiers armed with an early firearm, against them. Luis Mármol de Carvajal, a Spanish historian and chronicler, recorded the action.
On 9 May 1607, lookouts at the tower saw an enemy fleet of approximately 40 to 50 ships near the coast of Motril. The warning led to urgent preparations in Motril. Authorities closed the Toro postern, blocked the area around the hospital, and erected three beacons.
Decline and Later History
In his 1776 dictionary, the geographer and cartographer Tomás López described the road to Motril in detail and numbered its successive sections. A new route to the Granada coast was laid through Béznar in the mid-nineteenth century, after which the road by Torre de la Cebada fell out of regular use. It continued to serve local and agricultural communications.
The present structure dates from the beginning of the twentieth century and is also described as a reconstruction that reused the remains of the older tower. Its historical period of use is the Early Modern period, and it is now abandoned. Torre de la Cebada is protected under the general declaration established by the Decree of 22 April 1949 and under Spain’s Law 16/1985 on Historical Heritage. In 1993, the Junta de Andalucía granted special recognition to the castles of the autonomous community, including this tower. The surroundings of the tower and Venta de la Cebada were badly burned during the Los Guájares forest fire in September 2022.
Remains
The surviving complex stands at approximately 824 metres above sea level at Venta de la Cebada. Its reddish exterior, produced by an almagre coating, makes the building visible from a considerable distance. The plan is square, and the structure consists of a principal body with a smaller square tower attached at its southeast corner. The masonry walls are about one metre thick and slope outward.
Main Tower Complex
Principal Body
The principal body has sides measuring 11 metres and rises about 6.5 metres high. An arch divides the space at ground level, while the upper part ends in a terrace with battlements. The masonry construction and sloping walls give the body the robust form associated with its defensive purpose.
Southeast Tower
A square tower is attached to the southeast corner of the main body. Each side measures 4.8 metres, and the tower reaches 9.5 metres in height. Together, the attached tower and the larger body form the two-part arrangement of the present building.
Water Storage and Earlier Fabric
Rectangular Cistern
In front of the north facade are the remains of a large rectangular cistern, a structure used to collect and store water. Its position immediately before the facade preserves evidence of the practical arrangements that supported the fortified post.
Sixteenth-Century Watchtower Remains
The earlier watchtower survives through fabric reused in the early twentieth-century building. These remains connect the present structure with the sixteenth-century defensive post established after the conquest of Granada.
