Alaro Castle is in a fantastic position but a visit does require quite a trek after a very interesting hill climb drive! Look at these lovely roads and I am pretty sure we had to park at Es Verger as the road ended there, maybe it was access only after that though, not sure.
Visiting Alaro Castle
As the map shows, to visit Alaro Castle you have to be quite dedicated! It was about 45 minutes sweaty to walk to the castle from where we parked and we were the lazy ones, a lot of visitors choose to hike from Alaro town which is about an hour further away. The various route options are best illustrated on the castle’s own site here.
My Experience
Due to a total lack of research on my part I didn’t realise the walk involved. We parked at the restaurant and Deb stayed in the car as her neck and back were playing up, so Steff and I had a walk through the pine forest and then on to the castle. Although it was steep, it was a lovely climb just yakking and then suddenly the trees cleared and the castle appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
The defences weren’t that amazing but I’m pretty sure a grandmother with a sharp stick could have defended the narrow, cliffside entry way! The views were absolutely awesome
Alaro Castle Photo Gallery
History
It is a construction for military purposes which no historical record since 902, d following the Muslim invasion , when the Saracens came to the island. we can find the information in the Arab chronic Kitab tarih Mayurqa quoted the Castle as Hisn Alarün.
At that time there was already a fortification where the besieged resisted eight years and six months after the invasion. In fact, chronic narrates that could not conquer the castle until the inhabitants of the castle exhausted their food and surrendered.
In 1229 during the Catalan conquest by King Jaume I (the Conqueror) some Majorcan Muslim groups fleeing to the mountains after the King Jaume entered Madina Mayurqa .
In 1231 remaining outbreaks of Islamic population took refuge in the three rocky castles ( Alaró , Santueri Castle and Castell del Rei).Upon hearing the King Jaume I that the King of Tunisia will not try to reconquer Mallorca, he came back to Majorca with more boats and troops determined to the final conquest of the island.
Another remarkable fact about the history of the castle, occurs in 1285.
After the death of King Pere III d’ Aragó The Great, his son Alfonso III of Aragon El Liberal begins the invasion of Mallorca to try again annexing the Kingdom of Mallorca to the Crown of Aragon after the disconnection initiated by his uncle Jaume II, King of Mallorca. This occupation occurs without any altercation with the exception of the “battle” in Alaró, who had remained faithful to the Majorcan king.
In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, was gradually abandoned although one military garrison remained until 1741. From this date was only religious use, since in 1622 had built an oratory.
Five towers preserved the castle walls. At the entrance of the enclosure are a first gateway, located in the bulwarks. Some steps up arrive at a second gate, embedded in a defense tower The upper part is partly protected by a parapet raised on machicolations. It is the Donjon, popularly knowed as Constipador. At one of the end of the cliff , we also find another popular tower, called the the Moors Prison or the Torre de la Cueva, below which, there is the Cave of Sant Antoni, a vestige of an old hermit occupation of the seventeenth century.
References
Information on getting to the castle is here.
The site has useful information on the castle itself.
The castle’s own site is here and has useful information, including booking a stay in the onsite guest house. The history above is taken from there.