Santa Pola Castle, locally known as Castillo Fortaleza de Santa Pola, lies in the center of the city of Santa Pola in the province of Alicante in Spain.
Santa Pola Castle was built in 1557. It was commissioned by Bernardino de Cárdenas, Viceroy of Valencia, and designed by Italian military engineers in Renaissance style. Its function was to defend and protect the local fishermen. Because ever since the Turkish settlement in Algiers in 1516, the entire coast of the Spanish Mediterranean was threatened by attacks of Barbary pirates who landed on the coast and ravaged and looted towns and rural settlements, taking away the inhabitants as slaves.
After completion it was immediately garrisoned by 33 men. It communicated with the nearby Tamarit and Escaletes towers by means of smoke during daytime and fire during nighttime.
At the end of the 18th century Santa Pola Castle had deteriorated due to frequent pirate attacks. It was restored and became property of the Spanish Crown.
In 1855 the Ministery of War issued a demolition order for the castle because it had lost its military purpose. Execution of this order was prevented by the mayor of the town. The castle was then transferred to the local council. The castle was subsequently rebuilt and made fit for civil use; it became a town hall. Also the clock tower above the west entrance dates back to that time.
Santa Pola Castle stayed a town hall until the 1980's. It now houses a chapel, 2 museums and is used as a venue for cultural events.
It is a square castle with 2 bastions and two rectangular towers  at opposing corners around a large courtyard.
At present the exterior and the courtyard of Santa Pola Castle can freely be visited, for the museums you have to pay a small fee. A nice castle.
http://www.castles.nl

Santa Pola Castle

Account

by category

Login

Name

by region

Title

Name in English

Guardamar Castle, locally known as Castillo de Guardamar, lies on a hill in the center of the city of Guardamar del Segura in the province of Alicante in Spain.
Guardamar Castle is situated on a slighty sloping ridge, a strategic place in the coastal strip of the Bajo Segura area, next to the river mouth and facing the sea. And what now is known as Guardamar Castle was actually a walled village with a castle at the highest end of the ridge. The village and castle were founded in 1271 as a royal town by Alfonso X of Castile. He populated the town with Castilians. The site however has been inhabited since before Phoenician times.
Castilian rule over Guardamar lasted till 1296 when James II added it to his Aragonese kingdom. In the beginning of the 14th century it became the most important port and coastal fortress for the inland town of Orihuela. In 1331 it was sacked and burned during a Moorish raid. In 1368, during the War of the Two Peters, the village was placed under the jurisdiction of Orihuela.
During the 16th century the old medieval defences were reconstructed to cope with the advance of warfare; medieval towers were lowered and a couple of bastions were built.
In 1829 the area was hit by a severe earthquake. The castle and village were destroyed and subsequently abandoned as its inhabitants moved to the lower lands next to the sea.
At present Guardamar Castle is freely accessible. It used like a town park. There is not very much to see here, so not very interesting, but nice if you want to have a nice viewpoint over the city.
http://www.castles.nl

Guardamar Castle

The older people of Elche remember when it still served as a textile factory and even intermittently, as a prison. The dramatic process of renovation experienced by the Palace of Altamira, or Alcazar de la Señoría,makes it one of the best preserved strongholds in the province of Alicante, and at the same time an essential monumental point of reference of vital importance for the city.
Residence of the noblemen of Elche between the XV and the XIX centuries, its Torre del Homenaje or Keep also housed the Kings Jaime II and Pedro IV and the Catholic Monarchs during their stays in the city and hosted the meetings of the General Council of the City up to the XV century.
Factory and Prison
In the construction process of the Palace of Altamira several important stages stand out. The first corresponds to the Islamic period between the XI and XIII centuries. In the present day some stretches of the City Wall from this time may be seen, along with remnants of dwellings and drainage channels, which are not visible, as well as a monumental entrance gate and the Keep, of which only the ground floor belongs to this period.
The second phase, between the XV and XVI centuries, occurred after Gutierre de Cárdenas took possession of the lordship. This rebuilding work, defined by its decisive and extensive nature, shaped the general lines of the current form of the Palace. Subsequently, in the XVIII century, the Count of Altamira added a manor house of two floors to the original wall, which currently constitutes its south-facing facade.
It is polygonal in shape, with angles defined by projecting circular hubs, except in the area occupied by the Keep, which has a square base and three floors. Its rooms and the outbuildings of the western wing intermittently housed a prison from the XVIII century until 1959.
In 1915, the building was acquired by a local industrialist who built a textile factory in the Patio de Armas or parade ground, adjoined to the east wall, which was in operation until the end of the 1960s, at the same time as the prison. Nowadays this same parade ground is sometimes made use of as a perfect arena for social and cultural events.
Restoration
After being expropriated by the City Council in the 1970s in the last century, restoration of the building was carried out, including the outbuildings of the former factory, which, once refurbished, went on to house the Alejandro Ramos Folqués Municipal Archaeological Museum. In 2005, after further restoration, which brought to light remnants of the original stronghold, including an upper entrance gate from the banks of the river, whose existence was previously unknown, the palace came to form part of the new Archaeological and History Museum of Elche (MAHE). This centre was inaugurated in 2006 in conjunction with the return, for a period of six months only, of the Lady Elche, who was housed on the ground floor of the Torre del Homenaje or Keep, where an exact copy of the Iberian bust is currently displayed, ceded by the Provincial Archaeological Museum (MARQ).
http://www.visitelche.com

Altamira Palace

San Fernando Fort, locally known as Castillo de San Fernando or Castell de Sant Ferran, lies on a hill in the center of the city of Alicante, in the province of Alicante in Spain.
San Fernando Fort was built between 1808 and 1812 in neoclassical style, during the Peninsular War, by the military engineer Pablo Ordovas on the Tossal Hill. It was named San Fernando in honor of Ferdinand VII of Spain. It had to protect the city of Alicante from any attack coming from the north, over land. Apparently it was also meant to serve as a prison. It never saw service. Having been built quickly and of poor quality, the main bulwark began cracking within several years, making the fort obsolete.
Santa Bárbara Castle is close by.
At present San Fernando Fort can freely be visited, although besides it outer walls there is not a lot to be seen. It is used as a city park. It is suffering a lot from graffiti as you can see and feels like a run-down area. Sad.
http://www.castles.nl

San Fernando Fort

Santa Bárbara Castle (Valencian: Castell de Santa Bàrbara, Spanish: Castillo de Santa Bárbara) is a fortification in the center of Alicante, Spain. It stands on Mount Benacantil (166 m).
History
Bronze Age, Iberian, and Roman artifacts have been found on the slopes of the mountain, but the origins of the castle date to the 9th century at the time of Muslim control of the Iberian Peninsula, from 711 till 1296. The Arab medieval geographer Al-Idrisi calls this mountain Banu-lQatil, and the toponym may derive from the words pinna (Arabic for "peak") and laqanti, adjectival form of Laqant, the Arabic name for Alicante.
On 4 December 1248, the castle was captured by Castilian forces led by Alfonso of Castile. It was named after Saint Barbara, on whose feast day the castle was recaptured from the Arabs. It was conquered by the Aragonese in 1296 during the reign of James II of Aragon, who ordered its reconstruction. Peter IV of Aragon, Charles I of Spain and Philip II of Spain would oversee further reconstructions.
The castle was bombarded in 1691 by a French squadron. During the War of the Spanish Succession, it was held by the English for three years. In 1873, it was bombarded, along with the city, by the cantonalistas from the frigate Numancia.
From the 18th century the military role of the castle has declined and it was used sometimes as a prison. The castle remained abandoned until 1963, when it was opened to the public. Lifts have been installed inside the mountain (€2.70 charge in October 2018 but free for adults aged 65 on production of ID). There are some guided tours at €3 per person and there are refreshments and other amenities at and near the summit. Reasonably fit visitors may also appreciate the exercise of a walk to the top.