Why go
Sohail Castle makes more sense when you know its hill was associated with ancient Suel and later Suhayl. Roman finds near the castle and at Los Boliches show that the story extends beyond the fortress. Follow those traces to see how an old coastal settlement sits within today's Fuengirola.
The full story
The settlement began before the present town took shape. Phoenician activity preceded the Roman town of Suel, whose name survives in inscriptions found near the castle. Roman baths and a villa were also found in the area. At Los Boliches, architectural pieces discovered in 1984 were assembled as a temple entrance on the promenade. They offer another visible link to the Roman coast. In the Islamic period, the name changed to Suhayl. The castle on the hill dates to the tenth century, and the surrounding settlement included farmland and smaller villages. After the Christian conquest in 1485, attempts to repopulate the area struggled; a record from 1511 described the site as uninhabited apart from its fortress and watchtower. The castle's later history includes the Battle of Fuengirola in 1810, during the Peninsular War. These layers explain why the fortress is more than a viewpoint above the river mouth.