Torreón del Castillo

It is a slightly rectangular military architecture building with dimensions of approx. 15.30 x 12.80 and 17.50 m. high, with thick mud walls up to 2.70 m., brick reinforcements in the corners and original entrance in a bend. Although some authors affirm that it must be from the Almohad period (12th century) and others date its construction in the first years of the Christian conquest (around 1,240), there are no written news until 1333 in the time of Alfonso XI, next to the tower and bordering with the Gardens of Andalusia, a canvas of the old wall that surrounded the town is preserved.

According to López de Ayala, chronicler of Pedro I, the walls were beginning to be destroyed due to their antiquity, possessing “four gates that go to the four winds that are called the Royal Gate defended by a castle with a lot of strength; that of the Sun for a smaller fort with exits to the suburbs; and that of the Albarrana and the Medina that had towers ”(quoted by Francisco Serrano in“ La Rambla, history of a Cordoba city ”) As La Rambla is a town of Realengo and is located halfway between Córdoba, Málaga and Granada, the The castle was the temporary residence of kings, in particular of Pedro I (1,352), of Enrique IV (1,468) and of the Catholic Monarchs (sometimes Fernando alone and sometimes accompanied by Isabel), between the years 1482 and 1501, with occasion of the conquest of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. During its long history, the building was taken over by the crown on various occasions, being the subject of reforms, among which those carried out by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (Great Captain) stand out.

Since the middle of the s. XVII until 1821, the second floor served as a prison for the town and in 1822 it passed into private hands, giving up part of its enclosure for the layout of Calle Iglesia, until 1988, when the City Council of La Rambla recovered the tower and began a series of works and studies for its rehabilitation and enhancement as a ceramic museum, keeping the original remains and refurbishing the building. It opened its doors in 2002.