Iscar Castle

Iscar Castle is in a Spanish village of the same name which is located in the province of Valladolid. The castle or rather the ruins of the Iscar are standing high on a hill offering a very pleasant sight to the village and area around it.

The first castle on the site of today was built by the Moors. For the first time in an Arab Chronicle, it is described as a key base for the Moorish invasion of their territory and Christians in 939. In the 11th century the castle was owned by a nobleman of the province of Burgos - Alvar Fanez de Minaya, who was lieutenant of the army.

The construction of the Iscar Castle is quite interesting with its pentagonal architectural plan, it is precisely built from quarried stone. The angle of the fortress was crowned with the emblem of the Family of Icarus in the 15th century. They were Don Pedro Zuniga de Avellaneda and his wife Catherine Velasco de Mendoza.

The entrance was strengthened and guarded by three massive towers. They were built close to each other and formed a very strong defensive system for the fortress Iscar, which aimed to safeguard and protect the stone staircase at the front and the rolling wooden bridge, which unfortunately today can not be seen.

The rest of the Iscar Castle is composed of fences and walls of the towers. In some of these towers you can now see the small rectangular windows, which correspond to the artillery of the 16th century.

Today the Iscar Castle is a very adventurous tourist site for walking. Despite the challenging transition when you get to the hill where the Moorish fortress was built, you will feel that from such a height you will feel in control of everything. This is hardly true but it does at least give a view from that will forever be engraved in your memory.