Castle of the Counts of Benavente
The castle of the Counts of Benavente ( Spanish : Castillo de los Condes de Benavente ) in the small town of Puebla de Sanabria in the north-west of the province of Zamora ( Castile-León region ) is one of the best-preserved castles ( castillos ) of the 15th century in Spain .
location
The castle of the Counts of Benavente is located on an approximately 50 meter high and strategically well defended hill above the Río Castro , which - together with the Río Tera - is about 940 to 960 meters above sea level. d. M. located place Puebla de Sanabria on three sides. The town and castle are only about 15 kilometers (as the crow flies) from the border with northern Portugal .
history
The place was already known as a mint in Visigothic times, but there is no information about the existence of a fortification ( castrum ). After Portugal was able to enforce its independence from the Kingdom of León under the Burgundian rulers in the 11th and 12th centuries , its rulers saw each other - after several disputes, which in 1297 through the Treaty of Alcañices , which contained the definition of the border, which is still valid today between the two countries were settled - forced to secure the border, which mostly happened through castles in the nearby hinterland (see also Sobradillo and San Felices de los Gallegos ). After conflicts broke out again in the 15th century between the noble families of the Pimentel and Losada ruling the region, Alonso Pimentel y Enríquez , the third Count of Benavente , decided in the middle of the century to build a new castle on the site of a previous fortress. Against the background of quarrels with the city's magistrate, the construction work dragged on until the 16th century when his son Rodrigo Alonso Pimentel was able to complete the building.
During the Restoration War (1640–1668) after Portugal's personal union with Spain was dissolved, the system was damaged; it suffered a similar fate in the Spanish War of Independence at the beginning of the 19th century, when first Spanish and later French troops billeted in the castle. After that, the castle stood empty until it was ceded to the community in 1895; she used this as a prison, as a straw store and as a chicken coop. Extensive maintenance and restoration measures only began towards the end of the 20th century. Today's use includes the city library, an exhibition hall and an information center on the main topic of 'fortress structures'.
architecture
The very uniformly designed walls of the castle, clad with precisely hewn stones, enclose two parts - the courtyard ( patio de armas ) with the square keep ( torre de homenaje ), also known as El Macho , and one of two, surrounded by four mighty semicircular projecting towers Slender semicircular corner towers and slightly lower open courtyard area. All towers, with the exception of the donjon, which is accompanied by a semicircular projecting stair tower , end in platforms with crenellated wreaths . Houses ( Casa de Gobernador ) were built on the inside of the south wall of the outer walls, but they were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. Century and are mainly illuminated by the windows that were added later in the curtains . In the course of the restoration, the keep received a modern, flattened pyramid roof made of steel and glass.
literature
- Reinhart Wolf . With texts by Fernando Chueca Goitia and Hermann Schreiber: Castillos. Castles in Spain . Schirmer / Mosel Verlag , Munich 1983, ISBN 3-88814-127-3 .
Web links
- Castillo de los Condes de Benavente - Photos + Info (Spanish)
- Castillo de los Condes de Benavente - Photos + Info (Spanish)
Coordinates: 42 ° 3 ′ 19 ″ N , 6 ° 38 ′ 1 ″ W.