New Castle of Manzanares el Real
Encyclopedia
Manzanares el Real
Manzanares el Real is a 7,250 inhabitant town in the northern area of the autonomous Community of Madrid. It is located at the foot of The Pedriza, a part of the Sierra de Guadarrama, and next to the embalse de Santillana ....
(Community of Madrid, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
), next to the reservoir of Santillana at the foot of Sierra de Guadarrama
Sierra de Guadarrama
The Sierra de Guadarrama is a mountain range forming the main eastern section of the Sistema Central, the system of mountain ranges at the centre of the Iberian Peninsula. It is located between the Sierra de Gredos in the province of Ávila, and Sierra de Ayllón in the province of Guadalajara...
.
Its construction began in 1475 on a Romanesque-Mudéjar hermitage and today is one of the best preserved castles of the Community of Madrid. It was raised on the river Manzanares, as a residential palace of the House of Mendoza
House of Mendoza
The Mendoza family was a powerful line of Spanish nobles. Members of the family wielded considerable power, especially from the 14th to the 17th centuries in Castile. The family originated from the town of Mendoza in the province of Álava in the Basque countries...
, in the vicinity of an ancient fortress, abandoned once built the new building.
The castle now houses a museum of the Spanish castles and hosts a collection of tapestries. It was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico
Monument (Spain)
The current legislation regarding historical monuments in Spain dates from 1985. However, Monumentos nacionales were first designated in the nineteenth century. It was originally a fairly broad category for national heritage sites protecting, for example, the Alhambra...
in 1931. Is owned by the Duchy of the Infantado, but its management and use correspond to the Community of Madrid.
History
The land bordering the upper reaches of the River Manzanares, rich in pastures and forests were the subject of frequent disputes between different powers that emerged after the ReconquistaReconquista
The Reconquista was a period of almost 800 years in the Middle Ages during which several Christian kingdoms succeeded in retaking the Muslim-controlled areas of the Iberian Peninsula broadly known as Al-Andalus...
. The Communities of Villa y Tierra de Segovia and Madrid staged several disputes over the 13th century, which were resolved in the 14th century by the King John I of Castile
John I of Castile
John I was the king of Crown of Castile, was the son of Henry II and of his wife Juana Manuel of Castile, daughter of Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, head of a younger branch of the royal house of Castile...
with the donation of the comarca to his steward, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza.
The eldest son of this, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza (Admiral of Castile)
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza was the Admiral of Castile and tenth head of the House of Mendoza. He was the son of Pedro González de Mendoza and Aldonza López de Ayala.-Biography:Diego was born in the city of Guadalajara...
, Admiral of Castile, is credited with building the first fortress, now known as the Old Castle of Manzanares el Real, although it is likely that this building had an earlier origin . In the last third of the 15th century, the House of Mendoza
House of Mendoza
The Mendoza family was a powerful line of Spanish nobles. Members of the family wielded considerable power, especially from the 14th to the 17th centuries in Castile. The family originated from the town of Mendoza in the province of Álava in the Basque countries...
decided to build a new castle-palace, larger and more luxurious, according to the remarkable economic and political influence achieved by this family.
Work began in 1475. Were promoted by Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 1st Duke of the Infantado, he could not see them completed. It was his eldest son, Íñigo López de Mendoza
Íñigo López de Mendoza y Luna, 2nd Duke of the Infantado
Íñigo López de Mendoza y Luna was a Spanish noble, and second Duke of the Infantado.He was the son of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, 1st Duke of the Infantado and Brianda de Luna y Mendoza....
, who finished under the direction of the architect Juan Guas
Juan Guas
Juan Guas was a French artist and architect. He worked in a group of architects to create the Isabelline Gothic style. Born in Saint-Pol-de-Léon, he moved to Spain when he was young, and is often thought to have been Spanish...
, author of Palace of the Infantado, of Guadalajara.
The role of palatial residence which was designed only lasted a century. With the death in 1566 by Íñigo López de Mendoza y Pimentel
Íñigo López de Mendoza, 4th Duke of the Infantado
Iñigo Lopez de Mendoza y Pimentel, 4th Duke of the Infantado, , was a Spanish nobleman. He was made a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1546, number 193 to receive that distinction. Duke of the Infantado is a title first granted in 1475, and was inherited upon his father's death in 1531...
, 4th Duke of the Infantado, the castle ceased to be inhabited, as economic problems and disputes arose between the heirs of the House of Mendoza
House of Mendoza
The Mendoza family was a powerful line of Spanish nobles. Members of the family wielded considerable power, especially from the 14th to the 17th centuries in Castile. The family originated from the town of Mendoza in the province of Álava in the Basque countries...
.
The castle was one of the locations used in the movie El Cid
El Cid (film)
El Cid is a historical epic film, a romanticized story of the life of the Christian Castilian knight Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called "El Cid" who in the 11th century fought the North African Almoravides and ultimately contributed to the unification of Spain.Made by Samuel Bronston Productions in...
(1961).
In 1982, the castle housed the act of constitution of the Parliamentary Assembly of Madrid, which took place the presentation editor of the Statute of Autonomy.
Features
The castle, quadrangular, is constructed entirely of graniteGranite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
stone. It has four circular towers. In its vertices are decorated with balls of Isabelline Gothic
Isabelline Gothic
Isabelline Gothic , is a style of the Crown of Castile during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, who represents the transition between late Gothic and early Renaissance, with original features and decorative influences of Mudéjar art, Flanders and in a lesser extent, Italy.The Isabelline style...
style. Highlights the main tower of hexagonal form.
The building is topped by a terrace with machicolation
Machicolation
A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was developed in the Middle Ages when the Norman crusaders returned. A machicolated battlement...
and turrets. It consists of a rectangular courtyard with porticos and two galleries on octagonal columns. The Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
gallery on the first floor is considered the most beautiful of Spanish military architecture. On the southern chemin de ronde
Chemin de ronde
A chemin de ronde — also called an allure or, more prosaically, a wall-walk — is a raised, protected walkway behind a castle battlement....
the gallery is flaming trace on parapets decorated using diamond.
The whole castle is surrounded by a barbican
Barbican
A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from medieval Latin barbecana, signifying the "outer fortification of a city or castle," with cognates in the Romance languages A barbican, from...
, which loopholes are carved in low relief the cross of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, the title he enjoyed Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza. Other defensive elements of the building are its pockets.
The castle is arranged on six floors, plus a basement: ground floor, mezzanine first, main floor, mezzanine second, upper gallery and gallery of covers. The entrance door is framed in two buckets, presents an arch.