Perched majestically on the southernmost tip of Spain, overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar, stands Castillo de Santa Catalina. Which is actually not a castle. It was built in 1933 and intended to be used as a semaphore or optical telegraph for maritime signals. Which it never did.
Back in time, this hill, being an isolated place, served as a lazaretto during the 17th-century plague epidemic. In 1771, the hermitage was converted into a gunpowder storage facility.
During the War of Independence, the English demolished it, using the prisoners of Tarifa as labor, and began the construction of a fort for artillery, reinforced by the construction of a deep dry moat. After the war, in 1813, the English abandoned Tarifa.
From 1926, the Ministry of the Navy considered that the highest point of the Cerro de Santa Catalina, on the remains of the previous fort, was the ideal place to build a Semaphore or Optical Telegraph for maritime signals. The building was erected with the appearance of a Renaissance palace, leading to its popular designation as Castillo de Santa Catalina.It was officially completed in 1933, but the semaphore it was intended to house was never installed.
In 1936, the building was the target of bombings by the Republican Squadron, suffering damages of such magnitude that it was declared useless for service in 1937. After almost forty years of gradual abandonment, several changes of ownership, and irregular occupations, in 1972, the building was rehabilitated by the Navy, hosting the Ship Passage Control Center of the Strait of Gibraltar and, finally, a meteorological observation center under the Spanish Navy and the National Institute of Meteorology: the Tarifa Meteorological Station, the southernmost in Europe.
In 2000, the Strait Control Center moved to more modern facilities, and the Castle began to serve as a night surveillance point for the Civil Guard. In 2001, it returned to municipal ownership. Currently, the Castle of Santa Catalina is abandoned and increasingly deteriorating after restoration works were halted by a court order in October 2006, a situation denounced by neighborhood associations.
