Malmuerta Tower
A document written by the monarch Henry III el Doliente, dated in October of
1404 invited all the people to participate in the restoration of the tower. It says: “E por quanto a mi servicio de saber cuantos maravedises avedes despendido en las dichas obras por que sy algunos hay sobrados que se estiendan en las labores de la torre de la Mal-muerta e de los dichos adarves”. Besides this document refers to the way they financed the tower. So previously there was another tower, an defence tower built before 1404, situated in the same place of the actual one.
The tower is known as Malmuerta (badly died), it was built between 1404 and 1408, inspiring in the Seville door of the Old Alcazar, as it was previously mentioned
it was a tower linked to a wall by two roman arches. In this example it has only one arch that links the wall to the tower.
The tower is made in stone it has an octagonal plan with half pyramids buttresses. It is crown with merlons and below it there is wainscot like a losange, carried out with rhomb ad geometrical shapes.
Below the arch there is a double stone arch and into it there is the shield of the monarch Henry III and an incription: "In name of God and because of the good action, the king Henry III ordered to build this tower, being economically helped by Doctor Pedro Sánchez. Beginning in the year of our Jesus Christ by the bishop Fernando Deza year MCCCCIV and ending in the year MCCCCVIII".
In the following year the name of the tower helped the creation of many legends.
It is said that the tower was built by a muslim worker and if a knight comes and reads the board with the inscription, the tower collapses and the treasure appears.
But the most popular legend is linked to an historical fact. Don Fernán Alonso was married with Doña Beatriz of Hinestrosa, who was infidel with Don Jorge de Solier and Fernández of Córdoba. Don Fernán realizes it and commits a
crime: to kill his wife, her lover and three servants. Despite of this he was not accused of the crime because of an immunity signed by the King John II, which gave the immunity to everyone, but the criminals had to take part in the Battle of Antequera. So Don Fernán Alonso run away to Antequera and came back a year later without being committed. In compensation of the crimes committed, the legend says that he had to raise a tower.
This fact was represented in many theatral work such as Lope de Vega; or Juan Rufo but he changed a lot the plot. He collected in his long romance "Los Comendadores de Córdoba" (The Commanders of Córdoba), deforming it to a large extent. He put
the main character back from a hunt, and the victims at the home of Don Fernando, where they received death. On the other hand, Lope de Vega took the matter to the theater under the same title, "Los Comendadores de Córdoba" (1596), following the pattern proposed in the poem of Juan Rufo, but without naming the players.
And that's when the legend goes, adding that, as compensation for the deaths away, Don Fernán was sentenced to lift the Tower of Malmuerta, which probably did not occur, as happened forty years after the completion of
the tower.
This building after being a defence tower, was an astronomic observatory during the XVIII Century, it was a store for the gun powder or a fumigation room during the pests. In the XX Century the Mayor Alfonso Cruz Conde adapted the room for the cordovans to remind the Columbus discovery.
There are a lot of postcards of the XIX Century without any buildings behind. Nowadays there are a lot of new buildings, even higher than it, but its beauty and monumentality endures along the centuries.
1404 invited all the people to participate in the restoration of the tower. It says: “E por quanto a mi servicio de saber cuantos maravedises avedes despendido en las dichas obras por que sy algunos hay sobrados que se estiendan en las labores de la torre de la Mal-muerta e de los dichos adarves”. Besides this document refers to the way they financed the tower. So previously there was another tower, an defence tower built before 1404, situated in the same place of the actual one.
The tower is known as Malmuerta (badly died), it was built between 1404 and 1408, inspiring in the Seville door of the Old Alcazar, as it was previously mentioned
it was a tower linked to a wall by two roman arches. In this example it has only one arch that links the wall to the tower.
The tower is made in stone it has an octagonal plan with half pyramids buttresses. It is crown with merlons and below it there is wainscot like a losange, carried out with rhomb ad geometrical shapes.
Below the arch there is a double stone arch and into it there is the shield of the monarch Henry III and an incription: "In name of God and because of the good action, the king Henry III ordered to build this tower, being economically helped by Doctor Pedro Sánchez. Beginning in the year of our Jesus Christ by the bishop Fernando Deza year MCCCCIV and ending in the year MCCCCVIII".
In the following year the name of the tower helped the creation of many legends.
It is said that the tower was built by a muslim worker and if a knight comes and reads the board with the inscription, the tower collapses and the treasure appears.
But the most popular legend is linked to an historical fact. Don Fernán Alonso was married with Doña Beatriz of Hinestrosa, who was infidel with Don Jorge de Solier and Fernández of Córdoba. Don Fernán realizes it and commits a
crime: to kill his wife, her lover and three servants. Despite of this he was not accused of the crime because of an immunity signed by the King John II, which gave the immunity to everyone, but the criminals had to take part in the Battle of Antequera. So Don Fernán Alonso run away to Antequera and came back a year later without being committed. In compensation of the crimes committed, the legend says that he had to raise a tower.
This fact was represented in many theatral work such as Lope de Vega; or Juan Rufo but he changed a lot the plot. He collected in his long romance "Los Comendadores de Córdoba" (The Commanders of Córdoba), deforming it to a large extent. He put
the main character back from a hunt, and the victims at the home of Don Fernando, where they received death. On the other hand, Lope de Vega took the matter to the theater under the same title, "Los Comendadores de Córdoba" (1596), following the pattern proposed in the poem of Juan Rufo, but without naming the players.
And that's when the legend goes, adding that, as compensation for the deaths away, Don Fernán was sentenced to lift the Tower of Malmuerta, which probably did not occur, as happened forty years after the completion of
the tower.
This building after being a defence tower, was an astronomic observatory during the XVIII Century, it was a store for the gun powder or a fumigation room during the pests. In the XX Century the Mayor Alfonso Cruz Conde adapted the room for the cordovans to remind the Columbus discovery.
There are a lot of postcards of the XIX Century without any buildings behind. Nowadays there are a lot of new buildings, even higher than it, but its beauty and monumentality endures along the centuries.
Text: J.A.S.C.
Traslated by Sara Moretti