The Alcázar of Toledo (Spanish: Alcázar de Toledo, IPA: [alˈkaθaɾ ðe toˈleðo]) is a stone fortification located in the highest part of Toledo, Spain. Once used as a Roman palace in the 3rd century, it was restored under Charles I (Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor) and his son Philip II of Spain in the 1540s. In 1521, Hernán Cortés was received by Charles I at the Alcázar, following Cortes' conquest of the Aztecs. Most of the alcázar was rebuilt, or restored, between 1939 and 1957 after the Siege of the Alcázar of the Spanish Civil War.
Spanish Civil War
During the Spanish Civil War, Colonel José Moscardó Ituarte held the building against overwhelming Spanish Republican forces in the Siege of the Alcázar. The incident became a central piece of Spanish Nationalist lore, especially the story of Moscardó's son Luis. The Republicans took 16-year-old Luis hostage, and demanded that the Alcázar be surrendered or they would kill him. Luis told his father, "Surrender or they will shoot me." His father replied, "Then commend your soul to God, shout 'Viva Cristo Rey' and die like a hero."
Moscardó refused to surrender. Contemporary reports indicated that the Republicans then murdered Moscardó's son. Other historians have reported that Luis was not in fact shot until a month later "in reprisal for an air raid". The dramatic story also camouflages the fact that the fate of a number of male hostages, mainly from the Guardia Civil, taken into the Alcázar at the beginning of the siege is unclear. Some sources say the men "were never heard of again". However at least one journalist who visited the Alcázar in the immediate aftermath of its liberation saw a number of prisoners chained to a railing in a cellar.
The events of the Spanish Civil War at the Alcázar made the structure a symbol for Spanish Nationalism and inspired the naming of El Alcázar, a far-right newspaper that began during the civil war and ended during the Spanish transition to democracy as the mouthpiece for Búnker, a faction of Francoists who opposed reform after Francisco Franco's death.
By the end of the siege, the building had been severely damaged. After the war, it was rebuilt. It now houses the Castilla-La Mancha Regional Library ("Biblioteca Autonómica") and the Museum of the Army ("Museo del Ejército"), the latter having previously been housed in the Salón de Reinos in Madrid.

Alcázar of Toledo

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The Castle of San Servando is a medieval castle in Toledo, Spain, near the Tagus River. It was begun as a monastery, occupied first by monks and later by the Knights Templar.
In 1874 the castle was named a national monument. The fortress was depicted in El Greco's painting View of Toledo.
Monastery
Benedictines
Evidence exists of an ancient monastery attached to a basilica of the same name, possibly founded in the 7th century. In 1080, Cardinal Richard of St. Victor, a monk of the ancient Abbey of St. Victor in Marseille, was sent as the legate of Pope Gregory VII to the Council of Burgos held that year. One of his mandates was to ensure the adoption of the Roman Rite, replacing the ancient Mozarabic Rite used by the Christians of Iberia for centuries. He carried specific instructions for the restoration of San Servando and its adoption of Roman liturgical practice.
After surviving for several centuries under Muslim rule, when the city was conquered by the Christian army of King Alfonso VI of Castile in 1085, both he and his wife, Constance of Burgundy, became generous benefactors of the basilica and rebuilt the monastery. According to John Ormsby, the English translator of "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Alfonso VI called the castle "San Servando" after a Spanish martyr, a name subsequently modified into San Servan (in which form it appears in the "Poem of the Cid"), San Servantes, and San Cervantes. Mr. Ormsby mentions that "there is a complete history of the Cervantes family from the tenth century down to the seventeenth extant under the title "Illustrious Ancestry, Glorious Deeds, and Noble Posterity of the Famous Nuino Alfonso, Alcaide of Toledo," written in 1648 Rodrigo Mendez Silva." On the side of the mountain, near the Castle, a poem by Miguel de Cervantes was enshrined in 2005, four hundred years after Miguel de Cervantes wrote it. A picture of the poem is at panoramio.com.
On 11 March 1088, the king offered the monastery to the Holy See on the condition that it be permanently administered by the Abbey of St. Victor, along with all its goods and benefits. This arrangement was approved by Pope Urban II, who was elected the day after the documents for the donation were drawn up, on 20 February 1089. He entrusted the task to Cardinal Richard, by then himself Abbot of St. Victor. After that point, the monastery came under the authority of the Abbey of St. Victor and French monks began to occupy the Spanish monastery, introducing the Rule of St. Benedict.
King Alfonso saw the monastery as a bulwark of Christian presence in the region, and on 13 February 1099, made a donation of the Church of Santa María de Alficén, and of the community surrounding it, which was a traditional Mozarabic territory. He gave the monastery the objective of maintaining this identity among the populace. He further founded a monastery of Benedictine nuns to be attached to the church. Both monastic communities were charged with providing care and hospitality to the poor of the region and to travelers.
The monastery was destroyed by Saracen attacks in 1110, and the monks returned to Marseille. It was at this point that the Monastery of San Servando entered a new phase of its existence, as it became the possession of the Archbishop of Toledo and the cathedral chapter.
Knights Templar
King Alfonso VIII gave the monastery to the Knights Templar, who converted the monastery into a fortress in order to protect the Puente de Alcántara against a possible Muslim attack. With the disappearance of the Muslim threat and the dissolution of the Templars in 1312, the fortress lost its importance and was neglected. Today tours of the castle are conducted about the alleged haunting of the site by a miscreant knight, Don Nuño Alvear, who supposedly died after being shown his many victims in a vision.

Castle of San Servando

El castillo de Polán es una fortificación medieval de la localidad española de Polán, en la provincia de Toledo.
Descripción
El castillo se ubica en la localidad toledana de Polán, unos pocos kilómetros al suroeste de la capital provincial, en la comunidad autónoma de Castilla-La Mancha. Se encuentra en el norte del casco urbano y su estado es ruinoso. La parte mejor conservada sería una fachada rota en su centro, que deja a ambos lados dos fuertes torres, cuyo muro de unión desapareció.

Castillo de Polán

Almonacid de Toledo Castle, locally known as Castillo de Almonacid de Toledo, lies on an hill about 20 km southeast from the city of Toledo in the province of Toledo in Spain.
This castle was most probably built by the Moors. It's first mention was in 848 and in 854 it was the scene of a great battle between the troops of the Emir of Cordoba and rebels from Toledo.
According to legend its name is derived from a Spanish word meaning "The battlements of El Cid". El Cid is a very famous Spanish knight who played a great role during the Reconquest. More probably the name is derived from a Latin word; "almonaster", meaning monastery as the castle was called "ribat" (Moorish for monastery) by the Moors.
Almonacid de Toledo Castle came into the possession of King Alfonso IV as part of the dowry of his wife; princess Zaida. In 1086 he donated the castle to the archbishopric of Toledo. In the 14th century the castle was strengthened by the archbishop Don Pedro Tenorio. Later the pretender to the Portuguese throne; Count Alfonso of Gijon, was imprisoned in the castle on the orders of King Juan I of Castile.
On the 11th of August, 1809, the castle served as a refuge for the Spanish troops under general Venegas during a battle against French troops. This battle ended in French victory with the cost of 4000 men on the Spanish side and around 2000 men on the French side. It is in memory of this victory that the name Almonacid appears on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
The castle lies on a hill dominating the village, with the same name, below. The castle can be seen from kilometers away. You can also easily see Peñas Negras Castle from here. Almonacid de Toledo Castle has a polygonal shape. The castle's inner defensive wall has remnants of 2 square and 3 round towers. Inside there is the ruin of a 3-storey square keep and several cisterns.
At present Almonacid de Toledo Castle is freely accessible. This is one of my Spanish favorites, I like its concentric design very much and it offers wonderful views of the surrounding countryside.
http://www.castles.nl/almonacid-castle

Castillo de Almonacid

If only for its huge rearing lion, engraved in stone over the tower keep, it merits a visit. It is the heraldic emblem of the Silva family, the counts of Cifuentes. It was built by this family in the 15thcentury.
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
We can go around its big courtyard, and its almost square lower level, which indicates by its size and the time it was built that it was used more as a residence than as a defensive fortress. Two interesting cubes are signs of the barrier and the moat that protected the entry gate to the enclosure, and of which there are no remains. Three towers, two circular, the other square, and the tower comprise the rest of the premises.
http://en.www.turismocastillalamancha.es/patrimonio/castillo-de-barcience-97864/descripcion/
Juan de Silva, the first count of Cifuentes, began the fortress construction in the 14thcentury, and his grandson, of the same name, would later finish on his behalf. It was provided with artillery and garrison in the 16thcentury.