Volvemos por aquí para mostraros otro de los lugares más turísticos de la Ribera de Navarra. En esta ocasión vamos a hablaros de la Torre Monreal de Tudela, una atalaya cuyos orígenes se remontan a la Edad Media.
The Monreal Tower is located within the city of Tudela, the capital of the Ribera de Navarra, an area in which Ruralsuite, our luxury rural hotel, is located. Tudela, being the capital and most important city of its region, has great places and monuments to visit if you spend a holiday in this land.
The Monreal Tower is a watchtower located on a hill within the city, next to the monument to the Heart of Mary, on the opposite side of the Old Town where the hill of Santa Bárbara is located, where the castle of Sancho VII El Fuerte stood, so it was used for surveillance of the entire territory.
It has always been considered that the origin of the watchtower at this site was in the Muslim period, in the ninth century, but all the archaeological excavations carried out to date, in which no pottery from this period has been found, but from the Christian period, suggest that the original construction of the watchtower took place in the Christian period. in the twelfth century, in addition to the fact that the first written references to this tower date back to the thirteenth century.
Regardless of when the original construction took place, what is certain is that little remains of it, since the Monreal Tower has gone through different demolitions, reconstructions and restorations. The first restoration was carried out as early as 1343, as the Tower had been badly damaged by the floods that had occurred in the city.
After several centuries of changing ownership, due to the different conquests of the lands of Tudela by Castilians, Navarrese and French, and giving it different uses, the Monreal Tower was demolished by the Navarrese soldier Francisco Espoz y Mina in 1813, after the end of the War of Independence.
The current construction, with an octagonal floor plan, dates from the time of the Carlist Wars, specifically from 1883, when it was built for the defence of Tudela. However, the current appearance of the Tower comes from the various restorations that have been carried out from the Carlist era to the present day.
The last restoration and reform was in 2007, with the aim of giving extra value to this tourist spot of the city, turning it into an interpretation center, in which the entire history of Tudela and the different cultures that have inhabited the city are told: Arabs, Christians and Jews.
Thus, the Monreal Tower has several explanatory panels on all this, in addition to having the first camera obscura in the entire Autonomous Community of Navarre. In this camera obscura, it is possible to project on a screen the live image of the city of Tudela, thanks to the periscope that the Tower has on its roof, achieving a large moving photograph of the city, which is used in this camera to unite the past and present of the city. with the aim of explaining and representing the history of Tudela.
Without a doubt, an interesting place for any tourist and an interesting activity to go on a holiday. As always, from Ruralsuite we encourage you to visit the Ribera de Navarra; We will be happy to host you and guide you through the most picturesque places in the area, both in person and on this blog.
