Almuñécar is a municipality in the Spanish Autonomous Region of Andalusia on theCosta Tropical between Nerja (Málaga) and Motril (Granada). It has a subtropical climate. Almuñécar lies in the Province of Granada, and has around 26,000 citizens(2006). Since the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, the town of Almuñécar has become one of the most important tourist towns in Granada and this section of coast is now called the Costa Tropical. Almuñécar has good transport connections and a football (soccer) stadium.
It is an important setting in Laurie Lee's account of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, referred to as "Castillo" to disguise people's identities.
Almuñécar's coat of arms, which shows the turbaned heads of three Berber piratesfloating in the sea, was granted to the town by King Carlos I in 1526 for having destroyed a Berber raiding force