Alcalá del Júcar Castle

The castle crowns the rock on which the village is built. It began as a Muslim fortification of the Almohad period, from the strengthening of the frontier in the late 12th century, and was rebuilt later; what you see today is mainly the keep, which can be visited. From the top you look over the bend of the Júcar and the gorge.

A frontier castle

According to the association Los Pueblos Más Bonitos de España (The Most Beautiful Villages in Spain), the fortress was probably built by the Muslims in the late 12th century, when the Almohads reinforced the frontier against the Christian advance of Alfonso VIII. It passed into Christian hands around 1213, when the Castilian king took the Júcar area. What can be seen today, restored and rebuilt in recent times, mostly reflects the work carried out in the mid-15th century by Don Juan Pacheco, Marquis of Villena.

The main structure is a pentagonal tower with two small round towers at the corners, and it has three floors inside. Around it are remains of the wall that enclosed the town. In 1994 the Alcalá del Júcar Workshop School restored the natural surroundings and the entrance to the castle.

Its role as a lookout makes sense as you climb: it controlled the river crossing and the bridge carrying the Royal Road from Castile to the Levante. The Devil's Caves and the caves of King Garadén, a few streets lower down, tell that the Garadén cave served in Arab times as a sentry post over that same bridge.

What you see from the top

The tower is the highest point in the village. From it you see the whole bend of the Júcar, the whitewashed houses tumbling down the slope, the bullring and the bridge, and on the other side the gorge with its cliffs and pine woods. It is the view that explains why Alcalá was declared a historic-artistic site in 1982.

How to get up and when

You cannot go up by car: the old town is closed to traffic and the streets leading to the castle are narrow, steep and stepped. The sensible thing is to park in the lower part of the village and walk up; wear comfortable shoes and, in summer, take water, because the climb is in the sun. Go first thing or in the late afternoon to avoid the heat.

The opening hours and the price of admission change with the season and are not published on an official website: ask at the Tourist Office, on 967 473 090, before you climb.

The usual thing is to combine it with the walk round the old town and the bridge, which ends up here, and with one of the caves that run through the rock, such as the Masagó Caves. For a meal nearby, the Eliá Restaurant is a few minutes from the old town.