Castell de Ferro, located in the province of

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

, is known principally for its

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

, its agriculture and its conservation of traditional constructions. However, the beachfront is full of modern apartments. Castell de Ferro is situated in the central part of Granada's coast. Near this location we can find El Romeral, Calahonda y La Mamola. The Castell de Ferro's coast is characterized for its numerous caves and its beaches.

Toponymy

According to Manuel Sanchis Guarner, Castell de Ferro comes from the

Mozarabic Mozarabic, also called Andalusi Romance, refers to the medieval Romance varieties spoken in the Iberian Peninsula in territories controlled by the Islamic Emirate of Córdoba and its successors. They were the common tongue for the majority of ...

autochthonous evolution that conserves

archaisms In language, an archaism (from the grc, ἀρχαϊκός, ''archaïkós'', 'old-fashioned, antiquated', ultimately , ''archaîos'', 'from the beginning, ancient') is a word, a sense of a word, or a style of speech or writing that belongs to a hi ...

such as the non-

diphthongization In historical linguistics, vowel breaking, vowel fracture, or diphthongization is the sound change of a monophthong into a diphthong or triphthong. Types Vowel breaking may be unconditioned or conditioned. It may be triggered by the presence of a ...

of the Latin letter É. The survival of these archaisms, is explained by the greater fidelity to the Latin Andalusian

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

. It has been attempted sometimes to justify, without much foundation, the influence in the

toponomy Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

of emigrants arrived after the Christian conquest. This same phenomenon occurs in other names such as Ferreira or Poqueira, which are believed to have similarities with the Galician language. A more likely explanation is that the change from "castil" to "castell" took place between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries when large numbers of expats returned from Catalonia accompanied by Catalans. The word would have changed under the influence of the

Catalan language Catalan (; autonym: , ), known in the Valencian Community and Carche as ''Valencian'' (autonym: ), is a Western Romance language. It is the official language of Andorra, and an official language of three autonomous communities in eastern Spa ...

which allows for the LL digraph in final position, pronounced /ʎ/ as in ''castell'' /kəs'teʎ/.

History

The origin of Castell de Ferro dates back to

Phoenicia Phoenicia () was an ancient thalassocratic civilization originating in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily located in modern Lebanon. The territory of the Phoenician city-states extended and shrank throughout their histor ...

n times, according to some historians. It has many architectural remains of Arab origin or perhaps Roman. It has a tremendous tower overlooking the town from the hill, which may have that Phoenician source, although it has Arabic characteristics. Over the Marsa al-Firruy, al-Idrisi wrote, during the 12th century, about discovering the path that led from

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of the same name. It lies on southeastern Iberia on the Mediterranean Sea. Caliph Abd al-Rahman III founded the city in 955. The city gr ...

along the coast. Muslims said that the city was "A port with a little pond." By then, his role was mainly port. The stronghold does not seem to be documented until the fifteenth century, some sources refer to it with the term "Castil". This curious name seems to have romance origins, but after an Arabic adaptation it ended up with the name of Castil de fierro. It ended up with its actual name due to the influence of the local fishermen, who pronounced Castel de Ferro. Since the 1960s it has experienced an increasing tourism and

agricultural development Agricultural expansion describes the growth of agricultural land (arable land, pastures, etc.) especially in the 20th and 21st centuries. The agricultural expansion is often explained as a direct consequence of the global increase in food and ene ...

Demography

According to the National Statistical Institute of Spain, in 2014 Castell de Ferro had 2964 registered inhabitants, representing 59.58% of the total population of the municipality.

Monuments

Among the architectural elements Castell de Ferro has because of its history, its

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

castle stands out. It has Nazari origins and its currently unfinished. Other elements of the period are three watchtowers that were lookouts and defenses against the Barbary pirates who came to their shores, and la Torre de Cambriles, la Torre de la Estancia and la Torre del Zambullón. With Roman origins according to scholars of heritage, we can find the Torre de la Rijana, located a few kilometers from Castell de Ferro, who heads a small side creek very appreciated by tourism and has become famous for the filming of the movie " Al sur de Granda”.

Coast

This part of the

Costa Tropical Costa Granadina is a comarca in southern Spain, corresponding to the Mediterranean coastline of the province of Granada. It is also but less frequently called the Costa Tropical or Costa de Granada. It is crossed by the N-340 coastal highway th ...

is the least known by foreign tourists. Castell de Ferro, known for its clear waters, has some of the most beautiful beaches among the mediterranean coast. With its lack of infrastructure, this beach is still relatively untouched. It is an area of crops and

intensive farming Intensive agriculture, also known as intensive farming (as opposed to extensive farming), conventional, or industrial agriculture, is a type of agriculture, both of crop plants and of animals, with higher levels of input and output per unit of ag ...

of high quality, such as cucumbers, zucchini, peppers and avocados, most of which are for export to Northern Europe and other areas of Spain. One of the most visited beaches is la Rijana, were you can go for a relaxed swim among with other visitants and tourists. The Rijana despite being located in the

of Granada, has always been named one of the best and most voted beaches of the Costa del Sol

References

*http://www.granadacostatropical.com/castell-de-ferro/ *http://www.castelldeferro.org/ *http://www.esp.andalucia.com/provincia/granada/costa-tropical/gualchos-castell-de-ferro.htm *http://www.arqueologiamedieval.com/articulos/129/castell-de-ferro-evolucion-de-la-fortificacion-bajomedieval-y-su-territorio *http://granadapedia.wikanda.es/wiki/Castell_de_Ferro *http://granadapedia.wikanda.es/wiki/Castillo_%C3%A1rabe_de_Castell_de_Ferro {{Coord, 36.7225, N, 3.3592, W, source:wikidata, display=title Populated places in the Province of Granada