Torre de La Mata, Torrevieja

La Mata Tower is a coastal watchtower built on a beach in La Mata, municipality of Torrevieja, in the Valencian Community, Spain.

It is located next to the Embarcadero square in the town centre of the Torrevieja district of La Mata. A short distance away there is a channel that provides saline water to the lagoon of the same name in the natural park of the Lagunas de La Mata and Torrevieja.

Its plan is circular, with a trococonic shape, a diameter of about five meters and is built with masonry. It has undergone several repairs throughout history. It is known that the tower of La Mata was raised again on ancient remains in the sixteenth century, being rebuilt by the military engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli and one of the last repairs was made in 1982.

The purpose of the tower was defensive and the existence of a fortification at the entrance to a dock used for loading salt and other products is assumed. In the description made by the military engineer Pedro de Navas in 1787 he points out that it had a bronze cannon. The production of salt in Torrevieja has used the maritime transport as a usual means, being carried out the loading in the locality of La Mata and later in the Cornuda cove, in the city of Torrevieja, known as the salt threshing floors. The defensive and watchtowers were part of the coastal infrastructures, the most important being Torrelamata, which gave its name to the district, and there was another in the area of Cabo Cervera known as the Torre del Moro, and a third called the Torre-Vieja, which was near the Cornuda cove and gave its name to the city, and of which only the foundations remain.

It was declared of cultural interest in 1995.