Proteger y defender la Manga del Mar Menor: estudio histórico-arqueológico de la Torre de San Miguel del Estacio y la Torre de la Encañizada

Abstract

[EN] During the Sixteenth century, the North African pirates’ attacks hit peninsular coasts, including the southeast peninsular. In this situation, La Manga del Mar Menor was presented like a paramount position which ought to be defended, with the aim of avoid the pirates’ entrance in the Mar Menor, from where they could attack the productive fields of Cartagena and Murcia. Moreover, the pirates have conquered Isla Grosa, and it has become a point of watery from where they can operate. Therefore, two fortified towers were built in order to protect these coasts: the tower of San Miguel del Estacio, from where they can criticize harshly the ships which could approach to Isla Grosa; and the tower of La Encañizada, erected to defend the fertile weir’s fishing area and to protect the only channel which communicated the Mar Menor and the Mediterranean Sea.