Tamarit Tower

Tamarit Tower, locally known as Torre de Tamarit, lies on a very small island in the salt lagoons, east of the town of Santa Pola in the province of Alicante in Spain.

Ever since the Turkish settlement in Algiers in 1516, the entire coast of the Spanish Mediterranean was threatened by attacks of Barbary pirates who landed on the coast and ravaged and looted towns and rural settlements, taking away the inhabitants as slaves. So, in 1552, during the reign of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, lots of defensive watchtowers were started being built along the coast, from Alicante down to Cádiz. Most however were built or completed during the reign of his son, Philip II of Spain, during the second half of the 16th century.

Tamarit Tower was situated too far away from the coast to watch the sea. Instead, it had to facilitate communication between nearby Santa Pola Castle and the defensive towers near Elche, like Ressemblanc Tower, by means of smoke during daytime and fire during nighttime.

Tamarit Tower was restored from a ruin back to its present appearance somewhere around 2010.

At present Tamarit Tower can not be visited. But the main N-332 road is running right next to it, so it can easily be seen. A very nice tower, mainly due to its location.

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