Castle of Cuzcurrita de Río Tirón: A Fortified Palace in La Rioja
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Castile
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page8 sections
History
The Castle of Cuzcurrita de Río Tirón is a fortified palace in Spain, built in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century within the medieval defensive system of Castile. Cuzcurrita de Río Tirón stood among the fortified places protecting the Castilian frontier with Navarre, and the present fortress was constructed during this military period.
A Castilian frontier stronghold
Cuzcurrita formed part of a defensive line that included Cellorigo, Foncea, and Sajazarra to the north, Baños de Rioja and Leiva to the south, and Santo Domingo de la Calzada at the southern end. The town itself was formerly surrounded by walls, while the fortified palace reinforced this wider system of frontier defense.
In 1367, Henry II of Castile granted jurisdiction over Cuzcurrita to Juan Martínez de Rojas and his wife, Sancha. The castle tower is thought to have been built when the town belonged to the Rojas family. In 1419, Juan Rodríguez de Rojas established a mayorazgo, a hereditary estate arrangement designed to keep property within a family through a designated heir.
Changes of lordship
By 1464, Sancho de Rojas was lord of Cuzcurrita. He sold the town to Hernando de Santo Domingo, who later sold it to Pedro Suárez de Figueroa. The crowning element of the tower is believed to date from the period of the Suárez de Figueroa family.
In 1519, possession of the town passed to the son of Bernardino Fernández de Velasco, Constable of Castile, a senior military and political office in the Castilian monarchy. He was described as the biological father of a member of the Suárez de Figueroa family. During the reign of Philip II, Pedro Velasco, the ninth lord of Cuzcurrita, founded a new mayorazgo. His family’s coat of arms was placed at the castle entrance, and the fortress remained in Velasco hands for several centuries.
From aristocratic estate to winery
In the eighteenth century, the castle was acquired by the Marquises of Lazán, the Rebolledo de Palafox family. They retained it until the nineteenth-century abolition of seigneurial jurisdictions, the lordly rights of authority and jurisdiction, and of mayorazgos. Afterward, the property passed through several owners.
The Sáinz de Incháustegui family, Counts of Alacha, later undertook substantial restoration intended to preserve the castle. The building was remodeled in the early twentieth century for wine production. The Bergé group of companies acquired it in 1999 and carried out a comprehensive renovation. The first wine vintage produced inside the castle followed in 2000, and a separate winery adjoining the fortress opened in 2005. The castle is now substantially reconstructed and adapted for use as a winery.
Remains
The castle is an ashlar complex, meaning that it was built with regularly cut and dressed stone blocks. A central keep stands inside an enclosed stone wall, whose irregular quadrangular plan is almost trapezoidal. The enclosure has two levels above ground and a basement, all lower than the keep, and its position near the Tirón River banks and a mill stream is thought to have made use of a former moat.
Enclosing wall and entrances
Each face of the enclosure has a central projecting spur. These projections are topped by rectangular crenellations, although part of the roof covering was altered when a modern roof was installed. Most of the wall windows are modern, while the north and south walls retain two original arrow slits, narrow openings intended for defensive weapons.
Round buttresses occupy the corners of the walled enclosure and are themselves crowned with crenellations. The southwest corner is different, containing a hollow turret with a rectangular plan. The principal entrance lies on the left side of the north wall and is reached through a pointed arch. Other entrances are also present.
Central keep
The keep, the castle’s principal fortified tower, occupies the center of the enclosure. It is nearly square in plan and rises through four stories. A continuous machicolation crowns the tower, forming a projecting defensive structure with openings through which defenders could act against attackers below. Rectangular crenellations and turrets at the corners complete its upper structure.
Waterworks and wine production
A nineteenth-century washhouse stands at the foot of the building and was restored in 1997. Wine production was installed inside the castle during its twentieth-century adaptation, while the later winery occupies an independent space adjoining the fortress. These changes form part of the building’s present reconstructed and productive use.
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