Castle of Calahorra






La Calahorra follows the model of Renaissance castle-palaces: a sober and warlike exterior contrasting with a luxurious mortar decorated in Renaissance style. In addition La Calahorra one of the few castles built by Christians after the fall of Granada in 1492, is built of ashlar, instead of the bricks and plaster used by the Moslems.

Built on a slope at some distance from the village, where the Moorish population remained after 1492, it has a rectangular plan with a cylindrical tower at each comer plus a rectangular body extending from the west wall. Its severe exteror, relieved only by barred windows, is built for artillery, and around the castle there is a lower wall, which also has large embrasures for cannon.

The interior is completely different in style, a fine example of Italian architecture brought from that country by Don Right de Vavar y Mendoza. The main section is a two-story courtyard with arcades on columns, and it was built of 1,200 pieces of marble cut in Italy and assembled in Spain.

La Calaborra is unique not only for its architectural design, but because it is one of the last aristocratic castles to Spain, built at a time when the kings were limiting the powers of the nobility.

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