Places of interest

Plaza Vieja, is the oldest town square is located in a secluded corner and endearing. It was a place of games, parties and bulls, processions and civic parades.

In Muslim period was an irregular square and was the main souk. With Christians will be known as Square “Game of Reeds.” It will take its final appearance in the mid-nineteenth century, with arcades in the Netherlands and two-storey apartments. This is a place that has a slightly trapezoidal, and maintains the characteristic of the places closed and arcaded nineteenth century.

The square is dominated by the Town Hall, eclectic style, built between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The facade is divided into three sections. The first houses the arcades with arches, followed by a more developed second body, where balconies are located, and the third where the attic is. In the center of the facade, and at the top, the tower is topped with a dome, where the clock and shield of the City of Almería.

In the center of the square stands “The Monument to the Martyrs of Liberty“, emblematic obelisk, dedicated to 24-liberal people, who came to the beaches of Almeria with redcoats (hence its name), to proclaim liberty and the constitution against the despotism of Fernando VII, being shot on August 24, 1824. This is not the primitive monument, the former dates from 1868-1870 and was on the Plaza de Cádiz (current Puerta de Purchena), and in 1900 he moved to the Plaza Vieja, until its demolition in 1943. the first stone was, and it was rebuilt in 1988 by public subscription, it is marble. It consists of a large basement, on which the column that serves boot the colorful Corinthian capitals, topped by a bronze sphere surrounded with spikes or rays of the sun rises. This characteristic monument is known as “Monument to the Coloraos or Pingurucho”.

The northern part of the facade of the square corresponds Convento of the Claras, rebuilt after the fire suffered in the Spanish Civil War.

The Town Hall clock:
The clock on the facade of City Hall plays the popular tune Fandanguillo Almeria, every quarter hour, playing the full chords every hour.