Mijas restores 16th century Torrenueva and Calaburras watchtowers

Restoration work on two Mijas watchtowers is well under way and due to be completed in the next few weeks. Torrenueva, a 16th century watchtower, had been abandoned for decades. In September work began on repairing the structure of the tower to prevent stones from collapsing.

Like Torrenueva, another watchtower, Calaburras towers was also in poor condition but needed less work than the former. Calaburras will be finished before the end of the year, while work on Torrenueva will not be completed until January.

The budget for the restoration of the two heritage towers is 326,000 euros which has been co-financed through the budget of Mijas town hall together with the 1.5 per cent budget for the promotion of culture from the ministry of Mobility and Transport.

"What we are doing is to give value to all our heritage, our history, so that it can be known and visited. I believe that it is very important that all means are put in place, both human and economic, so that our children know the history of our area," said a Mijas councillor on Tuesday during a visit to the tower.

When the restoration is complete it will only be possible to visit the Torrenueva tower from the outside, as due to the condition of the tower it is not safe for visitors to enter. The town hall representative also announced that guided tours will be established both to Torrenueva and to other parts of the municipality; "We have to spread our history and, above all, children should learn about it.”

It was in the second half of September that the restoration of the Calaburras tower began. The towers served as lookout posts and were not garrisoned for defence. Their function was to establish a line of visual communication with the other towers along the coast to warn each other of the arrival of pirates.

"On the coast of Mijas, we are still lucky enough to be able to trace the defensive line formed by the watchtowers. The ones at Calahonda, Torrenueva and Calaburras are still standing," said Juan José de la Rubia, head of the Mijas historical heritage department.

"They were towers in the shape of a truncated cone, about 12 metres high and had their access at a height of about six metres so that in the event of a pirate raid they could not enter the interior; they were used to communicate from tower to tower when pirates were sighted and so that the troops could come to their aid," the expert said.