Jadraque Castle

Jadraque castle is an amazing medieval fortress, situated near the Spanish village of the same name, which is located somewhere in the middle of the province of Guadalajara. Jadraque castle is unique mostly because of its location as it dominates above the surrounding land in the valley of the River Henares and was built on a bit of a natural hill. It seems as if the mountain was created specifically to enable Jadraque to land on it.

For the first time the fortified building site of Jadraque castle was mentioned in some Arab chronicles. It describes the construction of a castle here, whose main purpose was to protect the valley of the river Henares and Guadalajara access to the area. It is believed that the Moors inhabited the Jadraque castle in the early 10th century in which they were called by the name Xaradraq.

Maybe Jadraque castle is preceded by an earlier Roman building, where the valley and the river Henares were part of "Via Augusta" - a Roman road that led from Merida to Zaragoza.

This information is not driven by actual evidence, however it is believed that the Jadraque was withdrawn from the Moors, when the Christians conquered territories in 1085 but Shortly after the castle fell under the jurisdiction of the Lords of Atienza.

Then early medieval castle was destroyed by Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, who was then bishop of Siguenza, because the castle was in ruins. A little later, in the late 15th century, the castle was completely restored. The castle was built parallel with elongated sides, it had no moat, no main watchtower, but on behalf of that had jagged firewalls.