Castle of Los Zúñiga

Cartaya, Spain

Castle of Los Zúñiga was built in the 15th century by D. Pedro de Zuñiga. Its objective was to defend the passage of Barca del Río Piedras.

Its structure is rectangular in shape and consists of a wall circuit with seven square towers at the corners and on the front and side canvases. The most important towers are the bell tower and the homage tower. In addition to these towers, there was a second outer low wall, already disappeared.

In the 16th century the  castle was refortified. Barbican was added, which was specially conditioned. It was an ideal refuge for citizens before the attacks of the Portuguese occurred in the 17th century and ended up consolidating the current town.

In the 18th century, it was planned to convert it into a barracks for the guard corps but discarded the project ended abandoned in 1812.

In 1815, the Duke of Béjar transferred the property to the Villa. In 1817, it was disarmed and adapted for cemeteries, dismantling the barbican and building barracks of vaults attached to the walls inside. He kept this use up to 1,872. Then it was destined to deposit coals and wood, after its desacralization.

In 1880 the file for the demolition is instructed, for its state of ruin, which is understood to threaten to collapse, and the corpses that are still preserved in the vaults, not those on the ground, are exhumed. As on other subsequent occasions, the demolition was not carried out due to the difficulties involved, acting simply to consolidate the most dangerous.

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Address

Calle Arenal 2, Cartaya, Spain
See all sites in Cartaya

Details

Founded: 15th century
Category: Castles and fortifications in Spain

More Information

ayto-cartaya.com

Rating

3.9/5 (based on Google user reviews)

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User Reviews

diana dorina mita (13 months ago)
fun there
Antonio perez dobarro (13 months ago)
No es lo que esperaba,demasiado arreglado
Emilio Huerga Visier (14 months ago)
No lo pudimos ver por dentro. Por fuera, pues poca cosa, se ve una muralla con aspecto de estar muy reataurada.El paseo alrededor aderezado con multitud de basura, sobre todo litronas, q no creo q hayan puesto ahí los visitantes.
Zaira Ramirez Aranda (14 months ago)
Precioso aunque solo lo vi por fuera ya que era de día y estaba cerrado. El horario que tienen de apertura es de noche
Neil Tarrant (3 years ago)
Interesting architecture, but marred by litter and graffiti. Interior was closed for the winter at the time of our visit.
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