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Castle of los Vélez

Mula, Río Mula, Murcia

1 Villages · 15 Monuments · 4 Nature · 6 Activities · 9 Curiosities · 6 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

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Castle of los Vélez

Monument · Mula, Río Mula, Murcia

The castillo de los Vélez crowns the hill of Mula, on the site of an earlier Islamic fortress mentioned by the traveller Al-Idrisi in the 12th century. The present fortress is the work of Pedro Fajardo y Chacón, marqués de los Vélez, who was humiliated in 1520 when the people of Mula rose up as a comunidad and forced him to swear to the privileges that Fernando III had granted the town after its conquest in 1244; to secure their submission, he had this Renaissance fortress built from 1524 onward, more a symbol of lordly authority than a military defence. He got around the royal ban on building fortresses with a false plaque attributing the work to the emperor Antoninus Pius. It may have been designed by Luis Fajardo, master builder of the household. It preserves a keep, a nave with a barrel vault and a cistern; it is a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection).

Photo: Paliano (Public domain)

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