Torre Quebrada de Guadiaro

the Torre Quebrada de Guadiaro, also sometimes referred to as Torre Vieja de Guadiaro or simply Torre Vieja is a beacon located in the Andalusian town of San Roque, Spain. The tower was built as part of the defence system of the Bay of Algeciras and the Strait of Gibraltar during the 15th century.

The tower is located next to the coastline and a few meters from the mouth of the river Guadiaro. It has a circular floor plan, is not very high and was built with materials of not very good quality as attested by various chroniclers of the time when they stated that its thin walls were "of rough stone". The exact year of its construction is unknown and some sources point to a possible Islamic origin. In any case, the tower was already standing at the beginning of the 16th century when lightning struck it and split it in two. After this event the Torre Quebrada de Guadiaro is ruined and unusable to carry out the functions that until then it had been developing. So in 1516 by means of a Royal Decree the need to build a new tower at the mouth of the river Guadiaro to replace it, the New Tower of Guadiaro, is made clear. Nowadays the tower is integrated in a park preserving approximately half of its original materials.