The Castle of Ucero is a medieval defensive construction located in Ucero, in the

province of Soria Soria is a Province (Spain), province of central Spain, in the eastern part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile-Leon, Castile and León. Most of the province is in the mountainous Sistema Ibérico area. Demogr ...

(

Castile and León Castile and León ( es, Castilla y León ; ast-leo, Castiella y Llión ; gl, Castela e León ) is an autonomous community in northwestern Spain. It was created in 1983, eight years after the end of the Francoist regime, by the merging of the ...

, Spain).

History

The place dominated by the castle has been inhabited since Prehistory. The castle is built on the site of an ancient Celtiberian ''

castro Castro is a Romance language word that originally derived from Latin ''castrum'', a pre-Roman military camp or fortification (cf: Greek: ''kastron''; Proto-Celtic:''*Kassrik;'' br, kaer, *kastro). The English-language equivalent is '' chester''. ...

''. The place is firstly mentioned in 1157 when

Alfonso VII Alphons (Latinized ''Alphonsus'', ''Adelphonsus'', or ''Adefonsus'') is a male given name recorded from the 8th century (Alfonso I of Asturias, r. 739–757) in the Christian successor states of the Visigothic kingdom in the Iberian peninsula. ...

located the village of Sotos the Suso between

Uxama Uxama Argaela was a Celtiberian, and subsequently Roman, city located on El Castro hill, overlooking the present town of El Burgo de Osma in Soria, Spain. Topography of Uxama History As one of the cities of the Arevaci, it actively participat ...

and Ucero and there are database that indicate that the castle already existed in the 13th century. It is estimated that the important hermit of San Juan de Otero, nowadays destroyed, was ubicated near San Bartolomé, which was a Templarian chapel. Castles in Castile and León {{Spain-castle-stub