MAIN ATTRACTIONS
This castle can be admired from the inside and outside exactly how it originally was. Perfectly restored, you can walk around the exterior walls and the parade ground as well as access the inside, with furniture and arms that recreate the atmosphere of its day.
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
The castle is preceded by an empty space, called a sentinel, from which you can access the fortress. Its entrance door is framed within two cubic structures and, over them, the emblem of the Prior of the Military Order of Jerusalem. The knights of this order were in charge of these original layouts to improve its defense. In the inside we can see a water tank covered by a barrel vault as well as the dungeon and the Library of Archives of the order. Thealbarranatower, the Arab element of the fortress, is circular and four stories high. You can also visit the chapter hall, the hermitage, the terraces and the garden.
It must have originally been a watchtower, erected during the Cordoba Caliphate. Alfonso VIII would conquer it in the 12thcentury, handing it over to the Military Order of Jerusalem, which gave it its current aspect. In the 19thcentury it was occupied by the Napoleonic troops, who destroyed the Archive. It eventually fell into a progressively deteriorating state until, in the 1960s, the Consuegra school-workshop started its restoration and continues working on it nowadays.
ACCESS
Timetable
From June 1st to September 30th
Bolero Mill: Everyday from 9'00 h. - 19'00 h.
Castle: Monday to Friday, from 10'00 to 14'00 h. and from 16'30 to 19'00 h. Saturday and Sunday, from 10'30 to 14'30 h. and from 16'30 to 19'00 h.
From October 1st to May 31st
Bolero Mill: Everyday from 9'00 h. - 18'00 h.
Castle: Monday to Friday, from 10'00 to 14'00 h. and from 15'30 to 18'00 h. Saturday and Sunday, from 10'30 to 14'30 h. and from 15'30 to 18'00 h.
Closed: December 25th and January 1st and 6th.
Price
Entrance to the Bolero Mill: 1.50 € per person.
Combined entrance to the Bolero Mill and the Castle: 4 € per person.
For more information at Consuegra Tourist Office, phone no. 925 47 57 31.
FUN FACTS
When King Alfonso VI married his last wife, the Muslim princess Zaida, he received the castle as part of her dowry. But not that much later, he would lose it in a battle against the Almoravids, taking another hundred years for it to go back to Christian hands.
