Castillo de Buñol: A Gothic Fortress on Valencia’s Former Frontier
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Aragon, Spanish
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page16 sections
History
Castillo de Buñol is a Christian fortress in Spain whose origins reach back to an Islamic settlement on two rocky heights in the eleventh or twelfth century. The surviving complex is dominated by Gothic elements added during the medieval period. Its position on the former frontier between Castile and Valencia allowed control of the royal road to Madrid and the Hoya de Buñol.
Islamic origins and Christian conquest
During the Islamic period, the two heights supported a settlement and fortress associated with the place then called Bunyul. Remains from this phase survive in both enclosures, including a gate that connected the fortified area with the settlement. The site was conquered from Muslim rule by James I in 1238. James I was the king of Aragon who led the Christian conquest of Valencia that year.
After the conquest, James I granted the castle to Rodrigo de Lizana, a knight involved in the campaign for Valencia. In 1241, Rodrigo transferred it to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, also known as the Hospitallers, a military-religious order that held fortified estates and defended Christian territories. The inhabitants retained their houses and lands until their later expulsion.
Royal ownership and Gothic transformation
James I later recovered the estate from the order and sold it in 1260 to Berenguela Fernández and her son Pedro Fernández. James II, a king of the Crown of Aragon, purchased it from Pedro in 1304 and granted it to his son Alfonso. Alfonso later granted it to his own son James in 1328. Pedro subsequently held the estate for many years.
In 1393, Peter IV of Aragon obtained Buñol for his son John I. The estate soon returned to James, the eldest son of Pedro, Count of Urgell. During the period associated with James, the castle was remodeled in the Gothic manner. This medieval transformation gave the complex much of its surviving historical character, including the palace buildings that occupy the higher part of the southern enclosure.
The revolt of the Count of Urgell
The political history of Buñol changed after the revolt of the Count of Urgell against the decision of the Compromise of Caspe in the early fifteenth century. The Compromise of Caspe was the process that selected a new king for the Crown of Aragon after a disputed succession. In connection with the confiscation of James of Urgell’s domains, the castle was besieged in 1413.
After these events, the lordship of the Hoya de Buñol passed through several transfers. Álvaro Dávila received the estate in 1415 and sold it to Alfonso V of Aragon in 1424. Alfonso V then sold it to his chamberlain Berenguer Mercader. The Mercader family and its descendants, later associated with the Counts of Buñol, held the Hoya de Buñol from the fifteenth century until 1835 or 1836.
The Mercader county and return to the Crown
Under the Mercaders, the lordship developed first into a barony and later into a county during the seventeenth century. In 1604, Philip III granted Gaspar Mercader Carroz the title of first Count of Buñol. The family’s control continued until a seventy-five-year legal dispute involving local inhabitants, the Mercader descendants, and the Counts of Buñol ended with ownership returning permanently to the Crown in 1835 or 1836.
After its return to royal ownership, the castle served as a barracks during the Carlist Wars, a series of nineteenth-century conflicts over the Spanish succession and political order. It had also been used for military purposes during the War of the Spanish Succession, the conflict over the succession to the Spanish throne, and the Peninsular War against Napoleonic France and its allies.
Civilian occupation and restoration
From the late nineteenth century, poorer civilian residents occupied the castle and transformed it into a neighborhood of Buñol. This use affected the Church of the Savior, whose decorative program was almost completely destroyed. Houses also occupied parts of the fortifications and other spaces that had previously served military and residential functions.
In the early 1960s, the Friends of the Castle Association, directed by Facundo Tomás Martí, began a restoration process that remains ongoing. The work has returned parts of the complex to cultural and public use, including an archaeological museum, exhibition spaces, a tourism office, and venues for cultural events. Castillo de Buñol is protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest under the registered identifiers RI-51-0009703 and IGPCV 46.18.077-002.
Remains
The castle occupies the highest part of Buñol on two rocky massifs extending for approximately 400 metres from northwest to southeast. The ridge lies between the gorge of the Buñol River and the Borrunes ravine, overlooking the town and the Hoya de Buñol. Two fortified enclosures occupy the heights. Artificial moats separated them and were crossed by bridges defended by towers that also functioned as gateways.
The military enclosure
Northern enclosure
The northern enclosure forms an irregular pentagon centered on a former parade ground. It was the principal military area, with walls built mainly from lime mortar and reinforced by towers combining lime mortar with limestone-tufa ashlar, carefully cut stone used especially at doors, vaults, and other important structural points.
A straight curtain wall was flanked by two corner towers, while a central access tower defended the entrance. Elsewhere, the walls followed the rocky escarpments. A wall-walk, the defensive passage along the top of a wall, included arrow slits. Parts of the perimeter are now occupied by houses attached to the walls. These dwellings postdate 1845 and occupy spaces that historically contained the garrison kitchens, dormitories, guardroom, stables, and related service buildings.
Torre Mayor
The Torre Mayor stands between the two enclosures, dominating the central bridge and moat while providing access to the southern enclosure. It has a trapezoidal plan and is built mainly of ashlar. Its north face beside the moat combines lime mortar with ashlar masonry. A narrow tunnel passes through the solid core of the tower, and its single room was reached from the now-lost upper floors of the Gothic palace.
The residential enclosure
Gothic palace
The irregular southern enclosure contained the residential installations of the fortress. Its higher section includes the Torre Mayor, the Gothic palace, and the Renaissance or Mercader Palace. The Gothic palace survives partly in the rectangular room known as Del Oscurico, attached along one side to the west face of the Torre Mayor.
Del Oscurico originally belonged to a three-storey structure. Two floors were demolished during the Second Republic, Spain’s republican government of the 1930s, because the building’s ruinous condition threatened the settlement on the slopes below. The surviving room is a restored single hall with five diaphragm arches, arches that support a roof or floor across a room, and is used for exhibitions and cultural events.
Renaissance or Mercader Palace
The Renaissance or Mercader Palace was built in the sixteenth century as an extension of the Gothic palace complex. The two palaces were joined by a small bridge at the level of their principal floors. A former palace structure associated with the counts forms part of the southern facade and is undergoing reconstruction.
Church of the Savior
The lower part of the southern enclosure contains houses, the Church of the Savior, and La Torreta. The church is a single-nave building probably constructed between the second half of the thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth century. Its interior has a barrel vault, lunettes, and transverse arches. One description identifies brick transverse arches and three bays. The building was remodeled in the Baroque manner during the seventeenth century, while its later civilian occupation almost entirely destroyed its decorative scheme.
La Torreta and the southern approach
La Torreta is a square tower-gate at the southern end of the complex and at its lowest level. A staircase connected the fortress with the old town through this entrance. The tower was originally an external albarrana tower, a detached or partly detached defensive tower projecting beyond the main fortress wall and linked to it by a passage or bridge.
Internal layout and building fabric
A west-east internal wall divided the southern enclosure and connected the Gothic palace with the Church of the Savior. Beside the church, a communication gate led to the Castle Orchard, which may have contained a small agricultural plot supplying the castle kitchens. The southern enclosure also retains houses around a roughly triangular square through which Castle Street descends toward the old quarter.
The castle combines rammed-earth and lime-mortar walls with ashlar masonry. Continuous alterations and successive occupations make the chronology of individual elements difficult to establish. The surviving Renaissance palace, Church of the Savior, houses, towers, walls, and restored palace rooms together preserve the complex’s long transition from fortified settlement to aristocratic residence, military barracks, and inhabited neighborhood.
