The Vice PM for the Junta, Juan Marín, and representatives from other bodies were present at the inauguration of La Herradura fort-museum last month.
The museum, which is set inside the fortress which had been a Guardia Civil post up to about a decade ago, is called, 1562, La Furia del Mar, and commemorates the naval disaster of that year when an entire Spanish fleet floundered in La Herradura Bay.
The fort was built in the 18th Century (around the 1780s) during the reign of Carlos III as protection from the constant pirate raids all along the coast of Andalucía, launched from the Barbary Coast.
In fact, most of the watch towers (atalayas) along the coast were built as part of an extensive coastal defence system at that time, along with all the other garrison forts on Playa El Tesorillo (Almuñécar) the Castillo de Baños (La Mamola) and El Castillo de Carchuna. All told, 32 defensive structures were built, amongst them 2-gun towers, 4-gun towers and mounted-troop, fort garrisons.
The fortress was used by the army until 1839 before being ceded to the carabineers, whose mission was to guarantee the security and surveillance of the coasts and to prevent smuggling operations. After the Carabineers were disbanded in 1940, it was handed over to the Guardia Civil, who used it as residential barracks until 2003.
Inside the museum there are maps, illustrations and artefacts, included amongst which is a replica oar from a slave galley – 25 of the 28 galleys of the doomed fleet went to the bottom, taking with them around 5,000 lives.
(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)