Belmonte Castle

Belmonte Castle is built on the site of a previous building built in 1324. The existing building of the Belmonte Castlewas erected by Juan Pacheco, Marquis de Villena, between 1456 and 1470. Belmonte Castle is in the Gothic-Mudejar-plateresque and Gothic-Arabic styles and has two enclosures.

The exterior of the Belmonte Castle is pentagon shaped, and joined to walls that go down towards the town; on the side with the exterior door, Belmonte Castle has a Gothic porch and lateral balustrade, and more or less at the opposite extreme of the enclosure there is another door, or false door, also with a balustrade, that links the Belmonte Castle to the town.

The interior enclosure of the Belmonte Castle is the real castle, made of three rectangular bodies attached at the corners, leaving a triangular interior space, with two buildings and the keep; each side of the Belmonte Castle is reinforced with a circular tower, six in total.

The inside of the Belmonte Castle's enclosure, like the outside, retains in the rooms, galleries, chapel, arches etc.... original work and 19th century neo-gothic renovations.

Some traces remain of the drawbridge and the moat of the Belmonte Castle that must have been there.

Belmonte Castle also retains an impressive defensive enclosure made up of the castle and walls and gates.