ARCHIVED - Restoration and conversion project to go ahead at the spectacular Fortaleza de Bocaoria in Campillo de Adentro

The spaghetti western-style building has mystified visitors to the guns of Castillitos for many years!

The Town Hall of Cartagena has issued a licence for a project to renovate a building in the tiny hamlet of Campillo de Adentro which has fascinated and mystified those visiting Cabo Tiñoso and the gun battery of Castillitos for many years.

Alongside the RM-E23 road which leads through Campillo de Adentro, up the mountains to the radio and TV antenna on the top of Cabo Tiñoso, and then on to the guns, is a ruined building which looks for all the world like a Mexican bank in a spaghetti western or the kind of “hacienda” where Butch Cassidy or Clint Eastwood’s Man With No Name might make their last stand.

In fact, though, this is the Fortaleza de Bocaoria, built in 1924 by the Cuerpo de Carabineros (whose mission was to patrol the coasts and borders of Spain and to combat smuggling, until they were merged in 1947 with the Guardia Civil), and later used by the Guardia to police the area of La Azohía. It has been abandoned since the 1980s.

The single-floor building is now privately owned, and the current owners plan to transform it into a complex including 12 self-contained properties. These will be distributed around the central patio of 760 square metres, while the total surface area of the property is 971 square metres on a plot of just over 9,000 square metres of land.

Each living space will consist of a living-room with kitchen, two bedrooms and a bathroom, and Ana Belén Castejón, the Deputy Mayoress of Cartagena, is confident that the 350,000-euro project will contribute to the revitalization of this corner of the west of the municipality.

For more local news, events and visiting information go to the Cartagena section of Murcia Today.