The Castillo de Velez-Blanco is a 16th century fortified palace that retains its outer grandeur despite centuries of abandonment and looting. The castle is in the Almeria region of south eastern Spain and was completed by 1515, with heavy Italian influence to its architecture. It began to decline in the 18th century through pillaging, looting and squatters and in the early 20th century a lot of the decorative interiors were sold off.
Visiting Castillo de Velez Blanco
The castle is easy to visit and is just off the main A92N – the scenery to the town itself is very pretty, mostly wooded hills. There is a car park a couple of minutes walk from the castle and entry to both is free. I’d allow an hour in the castle, possibly 90 minutes if the Homage Tower is open. There is a small souvenir shop but the town itself seemed pretty much closed up on the Friday lunchtime when we visited.
Opening times:
1st April – 30th September, Wednesday – Sunday, 10:00-14:00hrs and 17:00-20:00hrs.
1st October – 31st March, Wednesday – Sunday, 10:00-14:00hrs and 16:00-18:00hrs.
My Experience
Our visit was a day trip just to see the castle, on an extremely windy day in November. We were the only car in the car park and walked up the ramp to the castle and did a circuit of the walls before working out where the entrance was. The views were amazing, you can see why the Moors (and probably the Romans and Celts before them) had a castle here.
I was surprised that entry to the castle was free considering the cost of the ongoing restoration. There was a good PDF guide that we downloaded to get a plan and history of the castle:
As the interior decoration has largely been looted or sold there wasn’t a huge amount to see inside and the tower access was blocked off when we were there, possibly due to the wind or maybe it is still being restored. Considering the location and the end of the Reconquista it was interesting to see gun ports in the walls and an actual military purpose to the building.
Castillo de Velez Blanco Photo Gallery
History
Vélez-Blanco Castle, locally known as Castillo de Vélez-Blanco, lies on a hill in the town of Vélez-Blanco in the province of Almería in Spain.
Vélez-Blanco Castle was built between 1506 and 1515 by Don Pedro Fajardo y Chacón, following his appointment as the first Marquess of Los Vélez. It was built on the site of an earlier Arab fortification dominating the town below. A short time later Don Pedro also had Mula Castle and Marquis de los Vélez Castle built.
Building of the castle first started in Gothic style. But after the Marquess had visited La Calahorra Castle in Granada, owned by a relative of his, he changed his mind. Then the style was changed to that of the Italian Renaissance. This resulted in a magnificent Renaissance courtyard with lavishly decorated marble facades. The castle consists of two parts; the main castle and a barbican with two big arches that protected the drawbridge and the way leading up to it.
The Fajardo family resided in Vélez-Blanco Castle until the end of the 17th century. After that it was only sporadically inhabited until it was in a dilapidated state at the end of the 19th century.
In 1904 its owners started to empty the castle of its valuables. The great facades of the courtyard, complete with doors, windows and a balcony, were then sold, by the then Marquess of Los Vélez, Joaquín Álvarez de Toledo, to a French antiquarian, J. Goldberg. The facades were carefully removed from the castle and went to Marseille and later to Paris. In 1941 the facades were acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. They were then installed in the museum where they are currently displayed.
In 2005 Vélez-Blanco Castle was bought by the Andalusia Government for 3 million euros from the Marquis of Valverde, Salvador Fernandis Álvarez de Toledo.
References
The patio that was sold to The Met is detailed on the Met site here.
The history above is copied from the excellent castles.nl site here.
There is an excellent overview of the castle and area here.