The Castillo de la Duquesa is located in the Playa de la Duquesa, in the neighborhood known as El Castillo, in the town of Manilva ,in the Malaga province.

It was built in 1767 during the reign of Carlos III to improve the defense of the coast and stop the continuous landing of pirates and privateers who frequented it. His original name was Battery for four barrels of Manilva.

Manilva's Battery must have 1 Official, 2 corporals and 12 soldiers of the Urban Militia, 1 corporal and 6 soldiers of Cavalry, 1 corporal and 4 soldiers of disabled persons of Artillery, 1 guard-store and 1 chaplain, which does a total insole of 29 persons.
It is formed by three mainl parts: in one hand, a semicircular battery orientated towards the sea, in which they would have post four cannons, and that was separated from the principal section of the building by a pit.

The main section is distributed around a rectangular court, where you could find  all the dependences of the Castle and in the one that originally was situated a well with cistern.
The entry to the building defends itself with a wall in angle that precedes the principal door of access, and that was preceded of a pit and of a drawbridge today eliminated.
The whole section of the building has a terrace , for the defense by  musketry.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the arrival of the Frenchmen to these lands, in the so called War of the Independence, caused the occupation of the castle. Fifty Frenchmen were posted there to control the principal paths.

Patriots and soldiers realized heroic actions against these French troops, the forces placed in the castle were scourged constant and especially the forces of infantry that were going out or the soldiers of cavalry that guarded the paths.
Also at this moment the Castle suffers his only naval assault known, carried out by the English sea-coast against the French troops that were occupying it.
After the capture of Algeria by the Frenchmen in 1830 the piracy remained practically extinguished, and the development of new defensive technologies, made the Castle lost his military value.

It remained empty for years until it was occupied by the Carabineers' Body of Coast in the middle of the 19th century, whose mission was  guarantee the safety and vigilance of the coasts and borders as well as to avoid the smuggling, remaining the same  until 1890 that  a Barrack was built  100 m near of this one and to which they moved. In this time the mayor, as owner of the adjacent areas, where a sale was located, appropriated of the Castle using it as store, stable and barn.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Castle returns was occupied by some neighbors who did not have housings, living between his walls approximately 70 people until 1975.

Nowadays it is a municipal property and is the headquarters of the ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUNICIPAL MUSEUM OF MANILVA, as well as a Museum of Fencing, a room of exhibitions and a public library.
It is surrounded by the archaeological deposit called " ENVIRONMENT OF THE CASTLE OF THE DUCHESS ", declared Good of Cultural Interest. It is an archaeological set of Roman epoch dated between the centuries I and V A.D. and formed by a factory of salting, villa, thermal baths and necropolis.