Torrecid was a Christian

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

where

El Cid Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099) was a Castilian knight and warlord in medieval Spain. Fighting with both Christian and Muslim armies during his lifetime, he earned the Arabic honorific ''al-sīd'', which would evolve into El ...

camped for fifteen weeks around the year 1081 according to legend. The site remained buried for almost a thousand years until recent archaeological excavations found it where '' Cantar de Mio Cid'' describes it. The site, located in the valley of the

Jalón Xaló (; es, Jalón ), is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of Marina Alta in the Valencian Community, Spain. Geography The town of Jalón is located in the Jalón Valley. The Jalón or Gorgos river crosses the town, which has a length of . ...

river, is in the current municipality of

Ateca Ateca is a municipality located in the province of Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain. At the time of the 2015 census (INE), the municipality had a population of 1,969. The River Jalón is joined by the River Piedra and the River Manubles at Ateca. The ...

(

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

), Spain. To date the regional

Government of Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sout ...

has not cataloged it so its protection is the generic indicated in the Decree of 22 April 1949 and Law 16/1985 of protection of the

Spanish Historical Heritage Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

History

Located on the right bank of the

river, it is one of the most important castles in the development of the epic '' Cantar de Mio Cid''. It is located in the area, now called Torrecil, in front of the so-called La Mora Encantada, where the

castle of Alcocer The castle of Alcocer was a fortified Muslim village located in the archaeological site of ''La Mora Encantada'' in the Aragonese municipality of Ateca, Province of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain. History Located on the left bank of the Jalón (rive ...

was located, separated from it by the channel of the Jalón river and about two thousand meters away. The facts described in the song are situated around the year 1081. The hill where

camped for fifteen weeks according to the lay, is the place called Cerro Torrecid or Otero del Cid where the ruins that occupy us are located and it is a temporary fortified camp (''

mota Mota, MOTA or variations thereof may refer to: Geography * Mota (island), Vanuatu * Mota, Ethiopia, a town * Mota, Gujarat, India, a town * Mota, Ljutomer, Slovenia, a village Music * ''M.O.T.A.'' (album), a 2005 album by Cultura Profética * "M ...

''), rather than a castle proper, next to the one that would settle the tents that the Cid would take because according to the lay they were accompanied by three hundred knights and three hundred pawns that obviously had no place inside this small fortification. From here they could watch Alcocer separated only by the river Jalón.

Modern Times

There is scarcely any remains of the fortification that was built in a short time by the men of

, but only a few walls of masonry, covered with mud, barely half a meter high, which makes it possible to see the layout of the small fortified enclosure, it had a watchtower of about ten meters of height, placing the tents of the camp around the recito. It has been possible to construct plans of seven rooms and numerous remains of ceramics of the eleventh century have been found. The highlight of these remains is that if we stand on them we can easily see in front of them the remains of the

Alcocer Alcocer is a municipality located in the province of Guadalajara, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. According to the 2004 census (INE INE, Ine or ine may refer to: Institutions * Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, a German nuclear research center * ...

, to the right we see the town of Terrer and left the town of

who at that time paid pariahs.

Legal protection

It is protected within the generic declaration of Cultural interest of all the

castles of Spain The castles in Spain were built mainly for Spain, the country's defense, particularly with respect to fortification. During the Middle Ages, northern Christian kingdoms had to secure their borders with their Muslim southern neighbours, thus forc ...

by the Decree of 22 of April 1949 and Law 16/1985 of protection of the

Sources

*''The information in this article is based on that in its Spanish equivalent''.

External links

Torrecid in The Way of El Cid
Ateca Castles in Aragon Cantar de mio Cid Bien de Interés Cultural landmarks in the Province of Zaragoza Archaeological sites in Aragon {{Spain-struct-stub