Roman and industrial Águilas

The castle of San Juan de las Águilas, built in 1579, stands over the town and is its recognisable silhouette. You walk up, and from the top the shape of the bay suddenly makes sense.

Below are the Roman baths, with remains of a first-century caldarium and its hypocaust on view, and the nineteenth-century El Hornillo pier, where iron, lead and silver from the surrounding mines went out to sea. Two eras and the same reason: something has always been shipped from here.