Banos de la Reina

The Banos de la Reina — Baths of the Queen — are Roman fish-salting pools cut directly into the rock on the waterfront at the south end of town, just below the old quarter. The complex was used to trap and process fish in the 1st to 3rd centuries AD and is one of the more intact Roman industrial sites on this stretch of coast.

The pools sit right at sea level, half-filled with water, and you can walk among them freely. An adjacent interpretive panel explains the site in Spanish and English. The Romans also built a villa here, of which some mosaic fragments and wall remains survive nearby. It is a five-minute walk from the port.

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A story
The Romans used these rock-cut pools to farm fish — a practice called pisciculture — by trapping them at high tide and harvesting them when needed. The complex dates from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, making it one of the better-preserved examples of Roman fish farming infrastructure on the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The nearby Villa Romana ruins suggest a wealthy estate occupied the headland.