BELMONTE CASTLE
The main attention of the powerful tycoon Don Juan Pacheco was centered in Belmonte in fortifying the village fitting it with an expanded and strong wall, and in constructing for himself a dwelling at the top of the hill of San Cristóbal in the Eastern part of the
villa: The Castle, where one will turn upside down the fantasy and
the power of the Marquess in a so beautiful, so magnificent, so robust in his frame and so martial construction that is the most original plan of the Castles of Spain.
Who was its architect? The time at which it is constructed, some decorative elements match exactly those of the Colegiata and many of the marks of the stonecutters who worked in the Castle are the same ones of the Colegiata, makes think about the Maestro Hanequín of Brussels.
The Castle is made up of a main body and a barrier or outer wall that fits to him completely and both sides take and they descend to the walls of the villa. This main body is drawn up on an equilateral triangle that is the parade ground of the castle, whose sides have two rectangular bodies of three floors that compose the noble and residential part. The third side is the tower of the tribute, that protects the most accessible part where the troops lodged. The assembly´s formed by a starred plant in whose six ends many cylindrical towers rise, and thus the castle of Belmonte is a rare and unique construction in civilian and military architecture. For that reason it is necessary to enter within, to visit it with time and to verify its importance like one of great monuments of the gothic-mudéjar art of Spain, and without doubt, the best one of all of them.
When crossing the threshold of the Castle by the so called door of the Field, we are in a wide free space or patio between the castle and its wall, that is called albacara. The inhabitants of the Villa in case of attack by the enemies were completely safe.
BELMONTE
belmonte