The City Council opens the Castillo de San Luis to the public as a museum center after the recovery and conservation works.

The fortress, located in the historic center of Estepona, has remained hidden and unused for almost one hundred years.

The City Council of Estepona opens this afternoon the Castle of San Luis after an ambitious action that has been developed in recent years for the conservation and recovery of this coastal fortress built in the last quarter of the sixteenth century and whose remains are located in the historic center of the city. The intervention has allowed the enhancement of these remains that have remained unused for nearly a hundred years and that from this Friday open to the public as a museum center.

The aim of the intervention that has bet the current government team has been to recover this enclave that has remained hidden, and turn it into an exhibition space in which you can learn an important part of the history of Estepona. In addition to touring the facility, visitors can see first hand some of the archaeological pieces from different eras that have been obtained in the excavations carried out during the works, which have been displayed in the eight showcases enabled in the exhibition area.

The mayor, José María García Urbano, stressed the importance of this action developed by the City Council “to give visibility to this historical element that can now enjoy all residents and visitors”. The recovery of the Castillo de San Luis, recalled the alderman, has been a priority for the government team despite the difficulty of the intervention. The project has been developed in phases, being necessary first the acquisition, by the City Council, of the houses that were annexed and that kept the remains hidden. Subsequently, and after the conditioning of the whole environment, a thorough work with archaeological technique was started for the cleaning, conservation, stabilization and consolidation of the existing remains, as well as the elimination of the vegetal elements attached to the structure.

El Castillo de San Luis is inaugurated this afternoon and from tomorrow it can be visited from 10:00 to 14:00 and from 17:00 to 20:00 hours, Monday to Friday.

The action for the recovery and conservation, which was awarded to the company Grafeno Inversiones, S.L.U. for an amount of 531,795 euros (VAT included) financed through the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience-Next Generation EU Funds, has included a second phase in which a cover has been placed over the archaeological remains, allowing the use of the interior space as a museum room. In addition, the enclosure has a walkway that will allow visitors to walk inside the castle and contemplate the remains of the different historical phases of the building that have been appearing during the earthworks and archaeological excavations carried out.

Finally, the project has allowed the installation of several panels and didactic audiovisual elements to help in the interpretation of the castle environment, as well as a space to exhibit collections with historical interest, thus putting in value the footprint and the remains of the castle.

Historical value

This action in the Castle of San Luis has enormous value, given that a period of several centuries of Estepona’s history is made known through a visit to the monument, offering society a space full of history that contains 16th century floors, 18th century walls, and even older pieces.

The Castle of San Luis de Estepona is a coastal fortress built in the last quarter of the 16th century, as part of the reorganization of the defense of the western coast of Malaga after the Moorish rebellion of 1568. Its original purpose was to reinforce the southern front of the walls of Islamic origin, dominating the natural anchorage of the beach of La Rada. Its most outstanding elements were three artillery bastions and a large porticoed parade ground with several barracks.

In the middle of the 18th century, part of the Castle of San Luis underwent an important transformation and was restructured as a cannon battery. After the damage caused by the Lisbon earthquake in 1755 and the blowing up caused by the French in 1812, much of the castle was abandoned and fell into ruin, surviving only the cannon battery, which was incorporated as a courtyard in a house built in the late nineteenth century.