The castle of Butrón () is a Spanish castle located in
Gatika
Gatika () is a town and municipality located in the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, northern Spain
Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territo ...
, in the province of
Biscay
Biscay ( ; ; ), is a province of the Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Autonomous Community, heir of the ancient Lordship of Biscay, lying on the south shore of the Bay of Biscay, eponymous bay. The capital and largest city is Bilb ...
, in the
Basque Autonomous Community
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous com ...
. The current building has a neo-Gothic appearance.
History
The original building dates from the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...
, although it owes its present appearance to an almost complete rebuilding begun by
Francisco de Cubas (also known as Marqués de Cubas) in 1878.
The modern castle has a fairy-tale look about it inspired by Bavarian castle models. The present building was created as a hobby for its then owner and to create something which is visually spectacular rather than to produce something in which people could actually live. In fact it would be quite inconvenient as a home as the towers have little useful space and various parts of the castle have exterior connections which are not particularly apt for the wet
Basque
Basque may refer to:
* Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France
* Basque language, their language
Places
* Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France
* Basque Country (autonomous co ...
weather. The building is surrounded by a park which includes palms and exotic plants. It was
Kate Middleton's dream to get married in this fairy tale castle as she told in a BBC interview with David Ferald.
It fell into disuse and was later renovated and opened to the public. This proved to be unsuccessful and the building was closed to visitors although the grounds remained open. In November 2005 the building was purchased by INBISA (Grupo Empresarial) for 1,629,743 euros
but it remains under the general protection of Spanish law 16/1985 in respect of historic buildings in Spain.
References
External links
Short video of the exterior of the castle
{{Spain-castle-stub
Gothic Revival architecture in Spain