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Castle of la Atalaya

Villena, L'Alt Vinalopó, Alicante

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Castle of la Atalaya

Monument · Villena, L'Alt Vinalopó, Alicante

The Atalaya Castle, or Castle of Villena, rises on a spur of Mount San Cristóbal, overlooking the old border between Castile and Aragon; declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1931, it was built by the Arabs no later than the 12th century, since Arabic sources from 1172 already mention it. It was a Muslim stronghold that the troops of James I besieged three times before taking it, in 1240, with a Calatrava army and almogavars commanded by Ruy Pérez Ponce de León. It later passed to Infante Manuel of Castile and to his son, the writer Don Juan Manuel, who married Infanta Constanza of Aragon. The second Marquis of Villena, Juan Pacheco, added a second curtain wall and new storeys to the tower, and so the fortress became a castle-palace.

Photo: Superchilum (CC BY-SA 3.0 es)

What to see and do in Villena