Barcience Castle

Barcience Castle, locally known as Castillo de Barcience, lies next to the village by the same name in the province of Toledo in Spain.

From the 11th/12th century there has been a castle at this site. It belonged to the Order of Santiago in the 13th century. The Order gave the castle to Don Alfonso Tenorio who passed it on to the Count of Cifuentes; the Silva family.

This Silva family built the present castle in the 15th century. Although being a castle-palace, this was a strong castle, adapted to the use of artillery and protecting the valuables of the family. Later it belonged to the several Dukes and in 1901 it became private property.

The castle had an outer enclosure, a moat and a drawbridge. Besides parts of two small, round towers, nothing remains of this outer enclosure. The castle itself has a rectangular ground plan with towers at its corners. The gate in the eastern wall is protected by the square, projecting keep beside it. The other tower on the east side is also square, while the western towers are circular.

The east side of the keep is fitted with a large stone carving of a standing lion; the coat of arms of the Silva family. The keep is made of rubblework masonry with ashlars at its corners. All the walls survive up to their original height. There is a spiral stair in the northeast tower but this has partially collapsed. You can't go up in any of the towers. The interior of the castle is completely empty, although there are some vestiges of walls near the north wall.

I think this is a great castle, especially because of the peculiar keep with its carved lion. It seems to have no use and is freely accessible. Which is nice for castle fans like me but not for the castle itself because there was a lot of graffiti on the walls inside.

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