The works to recover the Castillo de San Luis enter their final phase with the construction of the enclosure’s roof.

The fortress, located in the historic center of Estepona, has remained hidden and unused for almost a hundred years and will now become a museum center.

The Estepona City Council reports that the works for the conservation and recovery project of the Castillo de San Luis, a coastal fortress built in the last quarter of the sixteenth century and whose remains are located in the historic center of the city, have entered their final phase and are expected to be completed next June.

The objective of the intervention for which the current government team has opted is to recover this enclave that has remained hidden and unused for almost a century, and turn it into a museum center. To this end, a roof will be placed over the archaeological remains, which will not be visible from the outside and which will allow the interior space to be used as a museum room. The project is already 75% completed and these days the roof is being built with three layers of mortar.

In addition, the enclosure will have a walkway that will allow visitors to tour the interior of 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.

The action for the recovery of the Castle of San Luis, 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, includes two phases of intervention. The first phase consisted of the cleaning, conservation, stabilization and consolidation of the existing remains, as well as the removal of the plant elements attached to the structure. The second phase focuses on the enhancement of the footprint and the remains of the castle using the historical-architectural-archaeological remains to explain and interpret the property.

In the coming weeks, the work of cleaning, removal of scaffolding and placement of the access door will be completed, once the heavy work has been completed.

Finally, the project foresees the installation of several panels and didactic audiovisual elements to help in the interpretation of the castle’s surroundings, as well as a space to exhibit collections of historical interest.

This action in the Castillo de San Luis is of enormous value, as it will provide information about a period of several centuries of Estepona’s history through a visit to the monument and will offer society a space full of history that contains 16th century floors, 18th century walls, and even older pieces. The project proposes a socially responsible intervention, accessible to people with reduced mobility. It has also been designed as an intelligent intervention, maximizing its possibilities through the use of new technologies.

The Castillo de 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 Málaga 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 earthquake of Lisbon 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.