Alhambra Castle

Alhambra Castle, locally known as Castillo de Alhambra, lies on a hill next to the town of the same name, in the province of Ciudad Real in Spain.

The first fortification at this site was an Arab castle, probably built by a Muslim garrison in the mid-12th century. Alfonso VII of León conquered that castle between 1158 an 1169. Ferdinand II of León donated the castle to the Order of Mountjoy, whose possessions later passed to the Order of Calatrava. After the Battle of Alarcos it was lost again to the Muslims.

In 1212, after the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, it was recovered by Alfonso VIII of Castile. In 1214 he donated it to the Order of Santiago. The present structure is said to have been built on the earlier Muslim castle, in the 13th century by Count Álvarez Núñez de Lara. In later centuries it lost its strategic importance and fell to ruin.

Alhambra Castle is a small mountaintop castle with a 14-sided wall of, at some places, 2 meters thick. In more recent centuries the castle ruin seems to have been used as a dovecote.

At present Alhambra Castle can freely be visited. A very nice small castle.

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