Castillo de Alcaudete

During the era of the emirs, impressive fortress, the Alcaudete Castle was built, which would acquire inaccessible fame in the Caliphate period. “Alcaudete is an impressive fortress – the historian Al-Idrissì wrote, built at the foot of a mountain facing the west, where there is a highly visited market”. The fortress was the centre of protection of a commercially very active medina, on a major road and commercial network, coveted militarily by both Muslims and Christians.

Nothing remains of these original defences, due to the significant reconstruction undergone by the defensive fort in the Almohad era when a new palace was built. Moreover, the habitants surrounded themselves by a mud wall constructed upon a masonry base, defended by small, square towers.

The Christian conquest of Alcaudete in 1246 and its adjudication to the Calatrava Military Order caused a new reconstruction, building the castle that is currently remaining and using the old palace as a front. After crossing the main gateway, we come directly upon a fortified moat, comprising the walls of the castle itself and other areas used to isolate and defend the central area, which is higher than the rest of the fortress. This area forms a terrace housing the most representative elements of the fortification, such as the keep tower, chapterhouse and refectory, guardhouse, accesses to ramparts, etc.

After the capture of Granada and its adhesion to the dominion of Montemayor, the fortress lost its military function. The lords of Alcaudete transformed the old castle into a private residence for managing its properties from here.

Today it has become a tourism-cultural space which houses the Interpretation Centre on the life of the Military Order of Calatrava. Visitors will go back to the 13th century to discover the construction of a castle on the border with the Nasrid Kingdom, the lifestyle and internal structure of the Order, the military armament used for the assault and defence of a fortress and the hand and personal weapons used by the religious knights.

It was declared a Historic Monument in 1985.