Torre de la Reina Mora Museum

The Torre de la Reina Mora was originally one of the entrance towers to the second walled enclosure or albacara of the castle. In the 17th century, after centuries of military inactivity and a significant state of abandonment, it became a hermitage.
The very name of Santa Ana is due to the patronage under which the hermitage was built, first dedicated to San Rafael and later to Santa Ana. Like many emblematic buildings, the tower carries its own legend, according to which a Moorish woman, married to a rich merchan whom she despised, fell in love with the qadi’s son.
Eventually, the lovers planned to kill the husband; but a parrot that the merchant had brought from a distant land revealed the lovers’ plans to its owner, and the lovers finally died by execution for their own deception.
The tower is essentially a two-storey earthen, rammed-earth tower with a square ground plan and a crenellated top. The upper part, which was accessed by a spiral staircase, was once refurbished to be used as the hermit’s dwelling. This building formed part of the defensive perimeter of the Muslim castle, and was also the interior of the albacara, a surrounded and protected space located near the fortress, by means of an entrance in the form of an elbow, which facilitated its control and defence.