Sohail Castle
| Sohail Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Northeast side of the Castillo de Sohail |
||
| Alternative name (s): | Castillo Sohail / Castillo Sûhayl | |
| Creation time : | 956 or 1730 | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Construction: | Feldstein - / brick - masonry | |
| Place: | Fuengirola | |
| Geographical location | 36 ° 31 '31 " N , 4 ° 37' 44" W | |
| Height: | 38 msnm | |
|
||
The Castillo de Sohail (also Sujayl ) is a ruined castle in the south of the urban area of Fuengirola . It is one of the landmarks of the Spanish city in the province of Málaga on the Costa del Sol .
The name of the Castillo refers to the former Arabic name of the settlement Sohail, or Sujayl, from which today's Fuengirola developed. This in turn is derived either from Suel , the Roman name of the city in the same place until the conquest by the Visigoths , or the Arabic name of a star, a reference point of the seafarers in the time of Al-Andalus , the Muslim rule in Spain.
Location and description
The castle, built under the Arab Umayyads , was built at the mouth of the Río Fuengirola . Its ruins are located south of the river at 38 meters above sea level . To the west of the castle runs the national road 340 between Málaga and Marbella , which is called Avenida Mare Nostrum here , to the east in the direction of Playa del Ejido is the beach promenade Paseo Marítimo Rey de España of Fuengirola , which has been extended over a pedestrian bridge since 2006 . To the south of the fortress walls, the Parque del Castillo reaches its greatest extent before hotel buildings are added.
Sohail Castle was built by the Arabs on the plan of an irregular octagon, with a tower at each of these corners. Today only six of the towers remain. Due to the multiple destruction over the centuries since its construction, no buildings have been preserved inside the castle. Only the remains of partition walls and the covered well in the castle courtyard, which was fed by the water of the nearby river, can be seen. The fortress walls, however, have been completely preserved. They have been restored in recent years. On the north-eastern perimeter wall there are still three cannons facing the sea, others from the castle were set up on the Fuengirola beach promenade.
history
Sohail Castle was built by order of the eighth emir and first caliph of Córdoba , Abd ar-Rahman III. , built in 956 to reinforce coastal defenses on the foundations of an older fortress of Phoenician or Roman origin. It served as a defense against attacks by Christians and Berbers from the sea against the area of Cordoba. Later, the castle was of strategic importance in the clashes of the Islamic partial empires on the Iberian Peninsula , the Taifas . From 1285 the Sohail area came under the rule of the Emirate of Granada .
Sohail was conquered in the course of the Reconquista on August 7, 1487 by the Christian troops of the Kingdom of Castile and León under the Marquis of Cádiz , Rodrigo Ponce de León , twelve days before taking the provincial capital of Malaga. The castle was badly damaged in the clashes. It was not until 1730 that the Castillo de Sohail was rebuilt, this time to prevent trade with Gibraltar, which was conquered by the British in 1704 , and to protect it from Moorish pirates.
When French troops marched into Spain at the instigation of Napoléon Bonaparte at the beginning of the 19th century , Sohail Castle also came under the occupation of the French Empire on February 8, 1810. In the course of the conflicts on the Iberian Peninsula between the British, Portuguese and Spanish on the one hand and the French on the other, which the Spanish called the Spanish War of Independence , British troops initially sought to capture the fortress. However, they could be repulsed by the French. It was not until April 16, 1812, that the Spaniards, under General Francisco Ballesteros , succeeded in taking Sohail and driving out the French army. The fortress was again badly damaged during the war.
- Views of the castle
North side of the courtyard
Main tower with entrance
North-eastern sea side
View to the south
Others
The restored fortress walls of Sohail Castle regularly host cultural events such as festivals, artistic performances and musical performances, including the Noches del Castillo (“Castle Nights”) with pop and rock concerts and the Fuengirola City Festival.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Luis Ojeda: Fuengirola / Mijas , Editorial Arguval, ISBN 84-95948-52-4
- ↑ a b Fuengirola , Ayuntamiento de Fuengirola, Editorial Escudo de Oro, 1st edition 1998, ISBN 84-378-2043-X
Web links
- Castillo de Sohail, Ayuntamiento de Fuengirola (Spanish)
- Castillo de Sohail (Spanish)
- Spanish Castles / Castle de Sohail ( Memento from September 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
- Castillo de Sohail, reconstruction (1785) as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse