Castillo del Fontanar - Palacio de los Ribera

Situated in Bornos (Cadiz), the Fontanar Castle - Ribera Palace is of Moorish origin. It is made up of an older, square site, which was the keep, with the entrance on the west side and a massive structure in the northwest corner. The remains of this ancient castle are limited to a few sections of the wall and the tower; its interior is divided into several chambers made of ashlar blocks.

It was restored and transformed into a Plateresque-style palace in the 16th century. 16th century. A large door, once plated in bronze, leads to a spacious courtyard, surrounded by a beautiful cloister with raised arches, above which there is an upper gallery with arcades of the same kind and a pointed balustrade. In the centre of the courtyard there is a marble fountain, brought over from Italy, with the Ribera family's coat of arms.

The building is rounded off by beautiful gardens, decorated with fountains and myrtles. At one end, there is a loggia, the only 16th-century Pompeian façade that exists in Andalusia, with niches that were decorated with statues of mythological motifs. Today, almost all of these statues can be found in the Casa de Pilatos palace in Seville.

In this garden, water is another decorative element and, although it has largely disappeared, the pool of the Secret Garden of this Ducal Palace is still preserved. According to legend, the Lady of the Castle bathed in it to cleanse her body and then went to the chapel attached to the garden to cleanse her soul.

Fontanar Castle - Ribera Palace was owned by the House of Medinaceli until 1949, when it was bought by the Town Council.