Melilla "La Vieja"

Besides the huge importance that the coexistence of them four cultures brings to the present of Melilla, not there is that forget it privileged situation that historically kept the city and that has known keep them important legacies that Phoenician, Roman, vandals, Byzantine and Arab left in she. If these legacies were few, Melilla boasts of more than 900 modernist buildings and "art deco". All this has become to Melilla in a singular museum architectural as diverse as exotic and different.

Melilla it old or "the people", as affectionately you called them Melilla, and that many now also known with the name of the Citadel, includes the enclosure fortified that began to build is in the 15th century on the rock that served of seat to it old Rusadir of Phoenician and Roman, destroyed and was rebuilt several times, along the history , as a result of the invasions of vandals and Arabs, or the internal struggles of the Berber tribes. This monumental complex is composed of four campuses separated by a moat or cut. The three first are interned in the sea and the fourth on the continent. In this last stand out them strong of the Rosario and of them victories, from where is carried out the shooting of the canon "the Walker" that determined them current limits of Melilla.

The Melilla for the nineteenth century formed by small and flirty neighborhoods of Fort San Carlos, Fort San Miguel, Alcazaba and Mantelletta is located opposite the Plaza of the cultures, in the heart of the city.

From the square you can climb on the road from the fortress to contemplate a panoramic view of the front of the land and part of the Cove of the Galapagos. To descend the slope back to the square you can see the abalaustrado front of the third enclosure on the moat of the Rams, which include the Tower of the Alafia, the barracks and the bastion of San Fernando. To these are accessed through the tunnel of San Fernando. We desembocaremos in the moat of the Hornwork, before passing the tunnel of the victory and the bastions of San Pedro and San Jose in the second enclosure or Plaza de Armas.

From here we will continue walking through the streets and buildings that surround the towers and Renaissance walls of the first enclosure: gate and Chapel of Santiago (only religious building of Gothic style throughout the African continent), wells, the Conventico that serve as a refuge for the population in times of siege, warehouses, Church of the conception, and the Hospital del Rey today become an original exhibition centre.

As complement to these visits in Melilla the old, can visit them strong exterior to the Plaza that began to build is in the 19th century. From the Fort of camels, continue through the Cabrerizas and finish the ride at the Rostrogordo outside Fort.

The city modern of Melilla has a charm very special. Leaving back the city of the 19th century, the ride can begin by the beautiful Plaza of Spain, presided over by the Palace of the Assembly, the construction "art deco" of Nieto. The Plaza of Spain continues having a great animation to the treat is of the Center nerve of the city of Melilla. Surrounding the square we arrive military Casino and the Bank of Spain, two very emblematic buildings of the city. From there it's worth prolong the trip visiting the streets and blocks that form the District of Queen Victoria (today Heroes of Spain) known as the "golden triangle".

Declared joint historical-artistic, Melilla it old is shows as a superb fortress seated on a rock that is goes in the Mediterranean, attached to Earth firm by an isthmus. It is composed of four enclosures fortified, separated by ditches, built from the 15th century over the old city and harbor a valuable architectural heritage.

The tour continues a reverse chronological sense, because that is accessed from the more modern enclosure, the fourth, ending in the most ancient part, the first enclosure.