Overview
- AddressCastle
- Opening times
closed to the public - Telephone number965613014
- Emailturismo@xixona.es
Description
It is possible that this building was originally a windmill. In the 16th century it was registered as the property of the notary Blai Bernabeu from whom it may well have acquired its name.
Tradition tells that the first apparition of Saint Sebastian took place within these walls. In the middle of the thirteenth century the inhabitants of the Torre Blai mill, faced with constant attack from Muslim troops who plundered their houses, razed their fields and destroyed their properties, decided to hide their most precious treasure, the statue of Saint Sebastian, in a space in the staircase leading to the upper part of the tower.
On this occasion, however, Saint Sebastian was unable to save the millers who were all killed in an attack while the statue remained safely in its hiding place. Years later, traditional Jijona storytellers would have us believe that the new owners heard sharp blows coming from one of the walls. When they opened this wall up they found the statue of the saint.
During the World War I the English painter, Wyndham Tryon (1883-1942), lived here. In the summer of 1920 other English artists Jan and Cora Gordon also lived and painted in the house and they have left us a record of their impressions of their time in Spain in their book “Poor Folk in Spain”.