Asomada Castle
Description
The castle of La Asomada is an old fortification that is located in a strategic place near the district of El Palmar. The slopes of the mountain where the Arab fortress is located are covered by a green blanket of Aleppo pine, the product of a repopulation carried out in the 1960s. Several trails mark the forest up to its top, being frequented by hikers who take advantage of the panoramic view over the Segura valley that can be seen from the watchtower.
The building of Arab origin was built around the 12th century, the period of maximum splendor of the Taifa of Murcia. It was designed as a strategic building for the control of space and communications between the coast and the interior. Although the building was never finished, the fortress was declared a Site of Cultural Interest in 1985.
The castle has a rectangular plan that is perfectly adapted to the top of the mountain and its walls are flanked by towers (three on each side) and turrets at the corners. Archaeologists attribute its construction to the Emir Muhammad ibn Mardanis, known to Christians as the Wolf King.
Different archaeological investigations have identified this unfinished castle as the possible pantheon of the Murcian emirs, although it has not yet been possible to determine the internal structure of the pantheon, and no remains of burial sites have been found in the walled enclosure.
What we do know for sure is that through the centuries these walls have constituted an important lookout point from the Mediterranean coast towards the city of Murcia and that today it continues to be a representative symbol of the capital of the Region.