Osma Castle is situated next to the town of El Burgo de Osma, in the western part of the province of Soria in Spain.
On a hill between the rivers Ucero and Avion, close to the ancient Roman city of Uxama and dominating the today humble, but formerly important, town of Osma, lie the remains of this once strong castle. It once possessed three walled enclosures of which nowadays some remains can be seen. The highest inner enclosure makes up the present castle with remains of a keep and other buildings. Along the outline of the lowest and largest outer enclosure, running down the slope of the hill, next to the riverbank, stands a ruined tower called; Torre del Aqua (Tower of the Water). It is constructed, as are some parts of the castle, with building materials taken from the ruins of nearby Uxama.
The medieval Osma Castle, built in 912 and conquered for the first time by King Garcia of Leon, underwent innumerable sieges and devastations due to Moorish expeditions that took place during the 10th and 11th century. Until 1088 when it was taken by king Alfonso VI during the Reconquest.
The town of Osma was founded in the 12th century along with its primitive Roman Catholic cathedral de San Pedro de Osma. As the town became more important than the castle it was equipped with great city walls, which are partially conserved today, in the 15th century by the bishop Pedro de Montoya, who also fortified nearby Ucero Castle.
Osma Castle is a nice ruin and can be visited freely. There isn't much to be seen inside but its a nice walk up the hill and the views from above are great.
http://www.castles.nl

Osma Castle

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The castle of Gormaz (Spanish: Fortaleza de Gormaz or Castillo de Gormaz) is a large citadel located in Castile and León, Spain.
Location
The castle is located 13 kilometers south-east of El Burgo de Osma, at Gormaz, in the province of Soria, in the autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Spain. It is situated north of the Duero river, placed on a hill that rises 100 m above the river level.
Features
The castle is more than 390 metres long though only 10-40 metres wide, has 28 towers (originally at least 31), a main gate with a monumental horseshoe arch with remains of painted red and white voussoirs, two posterns, one of which with a small horseshoe arch, three mihrabs corresponding to a "musalla" or open air collective oratory, use of "spoliae" of the Roman period, and the remains of a water pool near the monumental gate mentioned before. It was repaired in the 14th century, from which time date the remains of two gates on the southern side.
History
It was built shortly after 756 AD by emir Abd ar-Rahman I of Córdoba, as part of a state ("dawla") policy to control rich landowners and peasants, as well as to try to govern and protect the Central Marches in the Douro Valley against the Christians to the North. In 965, Caliph al-Hakem II rebuilt and expanded the castle, as attested by an inscription over one of the gates.
Surrounding area
Gormaz not only controls a contemporary bridge on the Duero, but it is in an area rich, in all directions, in watch-towers also of the middle of the 8th century AD and with some land-owners' towers such as the one that now serves as the belfry of the church of Bordecorex.
The area is rich in relics from this period, near to Sepúlveda and Segovia to the West, Ágreda to the East, Berlanga de Duero to the Southeast. This is probably one of the oldest standing ensembles of military architecture in Western Europe.

Castle of Gormaz

The castle of Ucero is a medieval defensive construction located in Ucero, in the province of Soria (Castile and León, Spain).
History
The place dominated by the castle has been inhabited since Prehistory. The castle is built on the site of an ancient Celtiberian castro.
The place is firstly mentioned in 1157 when Alfonso VII located the village of Sotos the Suso between Uxama and Ucero and there are database that indicate that the castle already existed in the 13th century. It is estimated that the important hermit of San Juan de Otero, nowadays destroyed, was ubicated near San Bartolomé, which was a Templarian chapel.