Puntos de Interés
Culture
Belmez Castle
Belmez Castle stands on a limestone promontory northwest of the town of the same name, which stretches across the plain at its feet.
Although it may be located on top of a previous Moorish fortress, the castle is known to date back to 1245. After being held by the Council of Córdoba it was in the hands of the Order of Calatrava, until Fernando III ceded the town of Priego de Córdoba to the order in exchange for the Belmez Castle and its territory. The main tower and the wall are later, from the 15th century, when it became an important control area during the Reconquest of Moorish Spain.
During the French occupation of Spain and the War of Independence, the castle was in the hands of the Gallic troops, who even carried out repair work on the castle grounds. After being abandoned for some time, it was restored in the 1960s by Félix Hernandez, the architect responsible for the excavations at Medina Azahara and the restoration of the Mosque of Cordoba and the courtyard of the orange trees at Seville Cathedral. In the 1990s, an unfinished restoration was undertaken again under the direction of Antonio Castro.
It consists of an elongated walled enclosure with six semi-cylindrical towers, a consequence of adapting to the hill on which it stands. In the parade ground there is a cistern and the keep, an 11-metre-high construction with a pentagonal floor plan and two storeys topped with brick vaults.
Access to the fortress is free of charge. It is reached via a steep, zigzagging staircase that starts in Calle Rafael Canalejo Cantero, next to the Virgen del Castillo hermitage, and access to the inner enclosure is gained through an enclosed door, located in one of the cubes.