Torre de la Peça

The Torreó de la Peça is one of the best-preserved defensive structures in Calpe's old town, named after «la peça», an artillery piece installed inside it in the 15th century to defend the Christian settlement from Barbary pirate raids. It stands on a cone-shaped circular base, topped by a cylindrical stone-and-mortar upper section.

Part of the wall, beside the arrabal

The tower belonged to the same system of medieval walls that protected both the original walled core and El Arrabal, the Morisco quarter that grew up around it along streets such as Santísimo Cristo, Pescadores, Puchalt and San Roque. Its position let it watch over one of the town's most exposed approaches from the sea.

Today the tower houses a small collectors' museum, with temporary displays of private and public pieces that change through the year. The visit inside is brief, but it's enough to appreciate the thickness of the walls and the defensive logic of the fortified old town. Along with the rest of Calpe's fortifications, the tower is thought to have helped the town withstand a corsair attack in 1653, twenty years after Calpe had been sacked and its people held for ransom by pirates in 1637.

The Torreó de la Peça stands next to the Church of the Virgen de las Nieves, at the heart of Calpe's old town, and a short walk from the Roman excavations at Baños de la Reina, so it's easy to cover in the same walking route through the town's heritage.