The Castle of Simancas (also known as Simancas Castle) is a fortified complex in

Simancas Simancas is a town and municipality of central Spain, located in the province of Valladolid, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is situated approximately 10 km southwest of the provincial capital Valladolid, on the ro ...

, central

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. The

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

stands in the center of town and houses the current

Archivo General de Simancas The General Archive of Simancas (also known by its acronym, ''AGS'') is an official archive located in the Castle of Simancas, in the town of Simancas, province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. It was founded in 1540, making this the firs ...

History

The site of the castle was at one time a

Moorish The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a distinct or se ...

fortress. In the 15th century the

House of Enríquez The House of Enríquez is a Spanish noble lineage of royal origin. History The House of Enríquez originated in the Crown of Castile, in the person of Frederick of Castile (Casa de Borgoña), natural son of King Alfonso XI of Castile and E ...

constructed a new fortification on top of the existing ruins, restored the Moorish walls, and added a chapel. The new castle was seized by the Spanish Crown during the reign of the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of Spain. They were both from the House of Trastámara and were second cousins, being bot ...

and turned into a prison. In 1540 the

was established in the castle, the first official archive of Castile. Felipe II transformed the castle into General Archive of the Kingdom, which housed one of the most important archives in Europe with 35 million documents. The castle was put under the protection of the Spanish government in 1949. In 1952 renovations were enacted to reduce risk to the archives. The castle is now open to tourists and researchers.

Fortification and structure

The castle's foundation, walls, battlements, gates, and bridges all date back to the late 15th century, mostly attributed from 1467 to 1480. The end of the

Reconquista The ' (Spanish, Portuguese and Galician for "reconquest") is a historiographical construction describing the 781-year period in the history of the Iberian Peninsula between the Umayyad conquest of Hispania in 711 and the fall of the Nasrid ...

in 1492 ended the immediate need for a large defensive fortification, and as such the castle's various reconstructions moulded it into an administrative building. Later additions to the castle incorporate aspects of the

Herrerian The Herrerian style ( es, estilo herreriano or ''arquitectura herreriana'') of architecture was developed in Spain during the last third of the 16th century under the reign of Philip II (1556–1598), and continued in force in the 17th centur ...

style of architecture. The current archive housed within the castle has been protected with fireproofing measures, and the 15th-century chapel built by the Enríquez has been restored.

References

{{Reflist Castles in Castile and León