Walking through Córdoba's Santa Marina neighborhood, you'll stumble upon the Torre de la Malmuerta near Plaza de Colón—a medieval tower that perfectly embodies how history and legend intertwine in this Andalusian city.

Built between 1404 and 1408 by order of King Henry III of Castile, this octagonal tower sits atop the remains of an earlier Almohad structure. Its original purpose was purely defensive, protecting the Rincón and Colodro gates. What makes it architecturally interesting is how it's supported by an arch that cuts through the old city wall, creating a passageway below while maintaining its watchful position above.

The tower's dark name—meaning "Tower of the Wrongly Dead Woman"—comes from a legend that's more gripping than the historical facts. According to the tale, a nobleman killed his wife here after falsely believing she had committed adultery. The story gets the timeline completely wrong though, since the tower predates the actual historical events it references by decades. The real Fernando Alfonso de Córdoba did murder his wife Beatriz de Hinestrosa in 1448, along with her lover and others, but this happened forty years after the tower was completed.

There's even a second legend claiming that if a rider could gallop beneath the arch while reading the entire royal inscription carved into the stone, the tower would crumble and reveal a fabulous treasure. The inscription itself is fascinating—a medieval text in old Castilian that chronicles the tower's construction, though it's now barely legible after centuries of weathering.

After losing its military importance, the Torre de la Malmuerta served various purposes. It housed noble prisoners, became an astronomer's observatory in the 18th century, and even hosted the local chess federation for a while. In 1951, it briefly held a small museum dedicated to Cordobans who participated in the Discovery of America.

The tower stands as a solid example of early 15th-century military architecture, built with carefully cut stone. It's solid up to the arch level, then hollow above, with internal chambers and a staircase leading to the top platform. Local residents are currently pushing for archaeological investigations that might reveal more about the original Islamic structure underneath.

An audio guide can help you catch details about the barely visible inscriptions and architectural features that are easy to miss. The Torre de la Malmuerta Córdoba represents that particular Spanish talent for wrapping every stone in stories, whether true or invented.