Torre de Roma: A Nasrid Defensive Tower in Granada, Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval
- Civilizations
- Nasrid
- Site type
- Military
On this page13 sections
History
Torre de Roma, also known as Torre de Romilla, is a fourteenth-century Nasrid defensive tower in Romilla, a hamlet of Chauchina in Granada, Spain. Built during the rule of the Nasrids, the Muslim dynasty that governed the kingdom of Granada until 1492, it served military and territorial-control purposes in the agricultural district known as the Soto de Roma.
The Nasrid tower and its setting
The tower’s exact date cannot be fixed, because no written document mentions its construction and associated material evidence is limited. Its form places it within the fourteenth-century Nasrid period, although comparable defensive towers in the region are known from as early as the tenth century. Its position also probably helped monitor ancient commercial routes, including routes of Roman origin that continued in use under Visigothic and Arab rule. A similar nearby tower remained known until the eighteenth century.
The surrounding Soto de Roma belonged to the strategically important Vega of Granada. Its farmland was irrigated by waters descending from Sierra Nevada, Sierra Arana-Alfaguara, and Sierra Elvira. Under Arab rule, the district produced fruit, grapes, wheat, timber, and mulberry leaves used in silkworm production. Torre de Roma therefore stood within a cultivated landscape whose resources and routes formed part of the wider territorial system around Granada.
From the Christian conquest to royal ownership
After the Christian conquest was completed in 1492, Chauchina recovered from wartime destruction and its lands were redistributed. Following the expulsion of the Moriscos, Muslims in Spain who had been compelled to convert to Christianity while retaining elements of Islamic culture and religious practice, the Soto de Roma became largely depopulated. It then passed into royal ownership and was designated a Royal Site, meaning a royal estate or domain.
By the late eighteenth century, the lands around Chauchina and the Soto de Roma belonged to the Crown under Carlos IV. On 27 September 1795, a royal decree authorized Manuel Godoy, the king’s chief minister, to receive the estate through a perpetual and irrevocable exchange. Godoy subsequently added “Lord of Torre de Roma” to his titles.
During Godoy’s ownership, the engineer Agustín de Betancourt was commissioned to regulate the course of the Genil River. Godoy also described extensive hemp cultivation in the Soto de Roma, covering more than 6,000 marjales, a traditional Granada land measure amounting to approximately 320 hectares. The crop supported the production of canvas. Recognition by the Crown of the Vega of Granada as an official supplier to the Royal Navy encouraged regional economic growth. Hemp and flax remained important crops, while sugar beet later contributed to economic recovery and the development of factories and railway connections during the nineteenth century.
The nineteenth century and later recognition
The Crown later reclaimed the Soto de Roma from Godoy after the Cortes of Cádiz, the representative assembly that met during the Napoleonic period, accused him of being pro-French and treasonous. Following the Peninsular War, the conflict in Iberia between French forces and their opponents, including Spain, Portugal, and Britain, a royal decree of 22 July 1813 transferred ownership rights over the estate to the Duke of Wellington and his descendants. The grant recognized Arthur Wellesley’s leadership of Allied forces against Napoleon and his support for the Bourbon monarchy.
During the nineteenth century, new settlers were drawn to the area by flax and hemp cultivation. The traditional tenancy system continued under Wellington’s ownership, while his descendants progressively sold the parcels during the twentieth century. Chauchina and Torre de Romilla also became part of the Washington Irving Route. This route follows Washington Irving’s journey through Spain in 1829 and partly corresponds to a medieval commercial and frontier route linking Christian territories in southern Iberia with the Nasrid kingdom of Granada.
Torre de Romilla was declared a Spanish Asset of Cultural Interest on 29 June 1985. This is a high-level legal heritage designation for properties considered historically or artistically important.
Remains
Torre de Roma is a square defensive structure built in rammed earth, a technique in which damp earth is compressed inside temporary forms to create solid wall sections. Its exterior narrows gradually toward the top, while the interior walls meet the floors at right angles. The tower now rises 14 metres and may originally have reached 16 metres, including its presumed pyramidal merlons.
Exterior and defensive arrangement
East facade and entrance
The east facade is the principal face of the tower. Its openings are arranged on a single central axis, with the entrance at ground-floor level, two arrow slits on the first floor, and a central window on the second floor. Arrow slits are narrow defensive openings used for observation or ranged weapons. Brick frames surround the entrance and windows, and the bricks measure approximately 29 by 14.5 by 4 centimetres, dimensions associated with Nasrid building traditions.
The entrance was raised about two metres above the ground. Access therefore required a ramp or staircase, which may have been fixed or removable. The elevated position helped protect the tower from flooding and made direct attack more difficult. A trace left by a beam indicates that the doorway may have carried a lintel, although a low arch is also possible.
Other facades and upper windows
The west facade has two symmetrically arranged first-floor arrow slits and an upper window corresponding to those on the other sides. The north facade has one upper window, while the south facade has one first-floor arrow slit and one second-floor window. At the highest level, four large windows, one on each side, have semicircular arches framed in brick.
The terrace may originally have carried crenellations formed by pyramidal merlons. The upper levels and terrace provided broad views over the surrounding territory, including the hill of the Alhambra, the palace-fortress complex in Granada. These elevated positions allowed visual communication between the two fortified sites.
Construction and interior spaces
Walls and structural materials
The tower’s base measures approximately 9.47 by 7.10 metres, narrowing to about 9.10 by 6.85 metres at terrace level. The walls are about 1.50 metres thick at the base and 1.35 metres thick at the terrace. Builders compressed clay-rich earth, sometimes mixed with straw or small stones, inside successive wooden formwork panels. Each panel was approximately 82 centimetres long.
Transverse beams used to support the formwork left small construction holes known as mechinales. These openings were later concealed beneath exterior plaster. The coatings improved the tower’s appearance, waterproofed the rammed earth, and helped consolidate its surfaces. The building has little exterior decoration, relying instead on the proportion and simplicity of its volumes and lines.
Ground floor and cistern
The tower contains five levels: a subterranean cistern, the ground floor, first floor, second floor, and terrace. The cistern is entered from the east and occupies the level below the ground floor. A shaft in the ground-floor surface descends to it, while a staircase beside the entrance leads upward through the building.
The ground-floor room has a brick vault and was probably the main space for everyday activities. Its elevated entrance formed the room’s source of light and ventilation. The arrangement connected the practical needs of the occupants with the tower’s defensive design and water-storage system.
First floor and upper room
Excluding the space taken by the staircase along the wall, the first-floor room measures approximately 4.25 by 4.05 metres. It has a plastered brick vault, three arrow slits on the south, east, and west sides, and a stairway covered by a barrel vault. Its exact function is uncertain, although it may have been used for sleeping and storage.
The upper room may have contained Arab plasterwork, but this remains uncertain. Openings and crevices in the tower are used by kestrels, little owls, swallows, and house martins, while sparrows occupy cavities in the rammed-earth walls and the small tunnels left by removed mechinales.
Surrounding agricultural landscape
The tower stands amid poplar groves and cultivated fields. Nearby plots produce garlic, artichokes, lettuce, and asparagus, and traditional local drying structures remain part of the surrounding landscape. These agricultural features continue the relationship between Torre de Roma and the productive lands of the Soto de Roma, a setting that shaped the tower’s historical role and survival.
