It is the work of Francisco Gilabert de Centelles, Count of Oliva.
On the small mountain of Santa Anna, it is located in the town centre of Oliva.
In the 16th-17th centuries, the populations of the Valencian coast suffered different attacks from Turkish and Berber groups that ravaged crops and plundered villages. This meant that in 1528 les Corts de Montsó agreed to build a coastal defense system at the same time as the creation of a guard. With the same intention, el Rey Felip II, in 1575, requested the Viceroy of Valencia, Vespasià Gonzaga i Colonna, to carry out a study on the defence of the coast. His report refers to the fortifications of Oliva in these terms: “Oliva es lugar mal cercado con cubillos antiguos. Y tiene morería no cercada. Dentro ay gente de lustre y castillo en el lugar, que es más casa llana. En lo alto sobre montecillo tiene otro castillo de poca substancia que de muro gruesso y nuevo es a manera de tabla cuadrada con dos cubos redondos en las dos esquinas. Tiene poco agua dentro, y aunque procuraron de tener pozo no llegaron donde era necessario, cosa es de poco fundamento; tiene algunas piezas de metal buenas del propio Señor y una media culebrina que a no estar sentida era muy gentil pieza y bien labrada; está un tercio de lengua de mar”.
The castle was built in the place of the previous ermita de Santa Anna, which predates the second half of the 16th century. The aforementioned document mentions the unfinished character of the castle, while the northwest part is missing the vaults and the barricade, the other to the southeast is finished.
Santa Anna, as well as the remodelling of the city walls and the palace of the Counts, are considered the work of Francisco Gilabert de Centelles, Count of Oliva. It is assumed that the date of 1546, which appears on the inscription that still survives and which came from el Palau, is precisely the moment when the construction was completed.
El castell de Santa Anna is located at the top of the calcareous promontory of the mountain that gives it its name. To the south, it ends the layout of the medieval and modern city, ensures the surveillance of communications and allows a perfect view of the sea. In addition, it provides a considerable control of a good part of el Raval or Moorish quarter, which was framed between the city walls with el Palau dels Comtes d’Oliva and the castle itself.
It is a rectangular structure measuring 43.50 x 34.70 metres, reinforced by two thick circular towers. The towers face two opposite points, one towards the northwest, where the city is located, and the other towards the southeast, flanking the access road and the entrance to the fortification.
Inside the fortification, in the middle of the courtyard there is still a rectangular cistern with a barrel vault and a brick factory. Although this cistern can be dated to the time of the building’s construction, its roof belongs to a later period, when a repair required its replacement, in the middle of the 18th century. Next to the cistern, there are traces of several walls that show the existence of usual constructions for housing the guard or gunpowder warehouseses, among others.
Inside the fortification there are still some walls from the hermitage of Santa Anna. This is a new chapel with the same title as the one that existed before the construction of the castle. The rectangular building had three naves: the central one with a dome. In front of the access door there was a porch facing west. Its construction according to some authors had to be in 1747. (Source: C.Pérez-Olagüe)