La Muralla Roja is one of Calpe’s most recognisable buildings, but it isn’t open as a public attraction.
There are no entrance tickets or general visiting hours, and you can’t book a tour of the interior. The building contains private homes, and access is limited to residents, invited guests, authorised visitors and people staying in one of its apartments.
You can still see parts of the building from outside, join the town’s free guided walk around the Manzanera, walk through the area yourself and use Calpe’s official virtual tour to explore the internal spaces.
La Muralla Roja at a Glance
| Detail | What to know |
|---|---|
| Location | Partida Manzanera, Calpe |
| Architect | Ricardo Bofill |
| Completed | 1973 |
| Public entry | Not permitted |
| Entrance tickets | None |
| Free guided walk | Runs from Casa de Cultura, views La Muralla Roja from outside, book through Calpe’s tourism offices |
| Outside photography | Allowed from public areas |
| Legal access | Apartment booking, resident invitation or prior authorisation |
| Professional photography | Permission required |
| Drones | Prohibited by the building |
| Virtual tour | Available through Calpe’s tourism website |
Can You Go Inside La Muralla Roja
Not as a normal visitor.
La Muralla Roja is a residential building, not a museum or public monument. Its staircases, patios, corridors, roof areas and pool belong to the private complex, gate or no gate. Following a resident inside without an actual invitation is still unauthorised access, whatever the entrance looks like when you arrive.
How Can You Legally Enter
There are three realistic options.
The simplest option is booking one of the apartments inside La Muralla Roja that operate as short-term holiday rental. That gets you in as a guest, but only as far as the apartment owner’s instructions and the building’s community rules allow. A booking gives you your own apartment and whatever shared areas your host tells you about, not free run of every rooftop and terrace in the building.
The second option is simpler to describe and harder to arrange: know someone who lives there, and get invited in. Asking a stranger at the entrance to let you through is a different thing entirely, and it isn’t invited access.
The third route is for professional work rather than casual visits. Photography, filming and commercial shoots all need prior approval from the building management, so anyone planning one should get that sorted well before they arrive with a crew.
Join the Free Guided Walk
Calpe’s town hall runs a free guided walking tour of the Bofill buildings in La Manzanera, and it’s worth knowing about even though it won’t get you inside La Muralla Roja itself.
The walk sets off on foot from the Casa de Cultura and takes in the common areas of Plexus, Xanadú and El Anfiteatro, plus a stretch of the Voramar walk and the higher part of Manzanera where Bofill’s villas sit, with views over the whole complex. La Muralla Roja is viewed from outside as part of the route rather than entered.
Sessions run roughly weekly, mostly in Spanish, with English sessions added over the summer months. You’ll need to book ahead through one of Calpe’s tourism offices, by phone, or by emailing, and it’s free.
I’d treat this as the best low-effort way to see several of Bofill’s buildings properly explained in one go, rather than trying to work out which is which from the street on your own.
Can You See La Muralla Roja From Outside
Standing outside gets you something real, just not the thing you’ve seen online.
The best-known images show the internal blue staircases, red courtyards, geometric openings and rooftop pool. Most of those spaces can’t be seen clearly from the street. What you actually get from public areas around Manzanera is sections of the coloured exterior, glimpsed at angles, and the way the whole structure sits above the coast.
Keep to public roads, pavements and paths. Don’t climb walls, lean over private terraces or photograph directly into apartments.
The Best Public Route
The most useful way to see the area is the Voramar Borumbot walk, which runs from Arenal Bol towards Cala Manzanera.
The route passes the three Ricardo Bofill buildings in this part of Calpe:
- El Anfiteatro
- Xanadú
- La Muralla Roja
Twenty-five minutes each way gets you there, and the walk continues towards Cala Manzanera afterwards.
This is more worthwhile than driving directly to the entrance, taking one restricted street-level photograph and leaving. I’d always rather walk this one than drive. The coastal stretch is half the point.
The route shows how La Muralla Roja fits into the wider Manzanera development and gives you views of the coast and nearby Bofill buildings.
Don’t expect a clear postcard view from every point. Much of La Muralla Roja’s design faces inward, and fencing and surrounding properties limit what can be seen from outside.
Use the Official Virtual Tour
Calpe launched an immersive virtual visit to La Muralla Roja in 2025.
The project used 3D scanning to capture the building and was created because the real complex is private and closed to general visitors.
The virtual tour gives a much better view of the internal staircases, patios and colour scheme than standing outside the entrance.
Start with the virtual tour if you want to actually see inside, then use the free guided walk or the Voramar Borumbot route to understand how the building sits in Manzanera, and finish at Cala Manzanera.
Why Is La Muralla Roja Famous
Ricardo Bofill designed La Muralla Roja around interlocking patios, passages, staircases and terraces.
The layout draws on the idea of a Mediterranean kasbah, with spaces connecting and overlapping rather than following a simple corridor plan.
The exterior uses strong red and pink tones, while many internal circulation areas are painted blue and purple. The colours change with the light and contrast with the sky and sea.
That mix of colour, geometry and repeated staircases has made the building popular with photographers, architecture accounts and social media users.
Its online fame can create the wrong expectation. It may look like an art installation or photography location, but people live there, and I think that’s worth remembering before you turn up expecting a photo shoot.
Was Squid Game Filmed at La Muralla Roja
No.
The colourful staircases in Squid Game are often compared with La Muralla Roja, but the series wasn’t filmed inside the Calpe building.
The similarity comes from the maze-like stairs, bold colours and geometric openings. A direct production link shouldn’t be claimed without clear evidence from the show’s designers.
Photography Rules
Casual photographs from public areas outside are allowed, and people with authorised access must still follow the building’s rules on top of that: non-professional photography for guests is limited to 10 am to 2 pm and 6 pm to 8 pm. Those hours don’t open the door to the general public. They only govern people who already have legal access. Professional shoots need prior permission, and drones are banned outright.
Inside the complex, avoid blocking doors and stairways, entering private terraces or photographing residents. I’ve watched people ignore all three in the same afternoon, and it’s exactly why the restricted hours exist in the first place.
Is It Worth Going If You Can’t Enter
It depends what you’re actually hoping to get out of it.
A trip made only to stand outside the entrance may feel disappointing, since the famous internal spaces are hidden from the street. The visit works better when combined with Xanadú, El Anfiteatro, Cala Manzanera and the Voramar Borumbot route, or with the free guided walk if you’d rather have it explained as you go.
Architecture fans will get more from the area than visitors expecting a ticketed attraction with open courtyards and guided tours of the interior.
Final Verdict
You can see La Muralla Roja from outside, but you can’t enter as a normal tourist. Legal access needs an apartment booking, an invitation from a resident, or prior authorisation, and there’s no way around that.
The best public visit combines the official virtual tour with the free guided walk or the Voramar Borumbot walk, finishing at Cala Manzanera.
Treat La Muralla Roja as a private home with important architecture, not as a public photo set. It’s the one bit of advice I’d want a first-time visitor to actually take on board.
