Castle of Miranda de Ebro: Medieval Fortress in Spain
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.1
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Spain
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Crown of Castile, Spanish
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
The Castle of Miranda de Ebro is a medieval fortification in Miranda de Ebro, Spain, built and developed on La Picota hill from the fourteenth to the late fifteenth century. Its elevated position above the Ebro basin gave the fortress a defensive role in a frontier settlement shaped by conflict and changing lordship.
Early medieval origins
Miranda may already have had a fortress during the Early Middle Ages, when Alfonso I and his brother Fruela were rulers of the Kingdom of Asturias and their campaigns reached the region. The castle is first explicitly mentioned in 1177, in connection with Navarrese petitions to Castile.
From church site to noble fortress
The origins of the present castle are conventionally linked to 15 October 1358. On that date, Count Don Tello, Lord of Biscay, requested the transfer of the site occupied by the primitive Church of Santa Maria from the Bishopric and Chapter of Calahorra. The bishop agreed, and the deed was signed at Viana in October of that year. The transfer to Miranda was delayed until July 1374, three years after Don Tello’s death.
Construction began in 1449, when Pedro Sarmiento, Lord of Salinas, occupied the church and started building a castle despite opposition from Miranda’s inhabitants. Work continued until 1485 under Juan Guas, a prominent late-medieval master builder and stonemason.
Lordship, warfare, and decline
In 1493, a judgment issued by the Catholic Monarchs reincorporated Miranda de Ebro into the Lordship of Burgos, while the fortress remained under the Counts of Salinas. After Diego Gomez Sarmiento died in the early sixteenth century, the castle stayed with his family until the eighteenth century. It was later held jointly with the Dukes of Hijar after the families became related. In 1772, following prolonged legal disputes with the Duke of Hijar, the city council secured ownership of the castle.
Miranda’s position as a frontier settlement brought repeated wars and repairs. The Peninsular War, the conflict in which Spain and its allies fought Napoleon’s forces and their French-backed government, and the Carlist Wars left the fortress in ruins. On 5 September 1808, Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother and the French-installed king of Spain, signed from the castle a decree authorizing the use of French currency in Spain.
Dismantling and archaeological recovery
In 1903, the city council ordered the dismantling of the castle because of its advanced ruin. Some stone was reused for a bullring, which has since been demolished, while part of the fortress was covered with earth. Water reservoirs were constructed over much of the former site in 1913 to supply the Old Town.
The castle has been protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest under the general declaration established by the decree of 22 April 1949 and Spain’s Historical Heritage Law 16/1985. Interest revived after Miranda de Ebro’s ninth centenary celebrations in 1999. In the early twenty-first century, the city council approved rehabilitation funding, and an agreement with the University of Burgos led to the first archaeological excavations in 2006. Further excavations began in 2009 during the rehabilitation project.
The initial study produced a master plan for recovery and confirmed an eighth-century settlement on La Picota, possibly the remains of Miranda’s earliest village. Rehabilitation began in September 2011, focusing on the visible walls and the consolidation and presentation of archaeological remains. Work concentrated on the barbican, an external defensive structure protecting an entrance, the gateway, and the northern and eastern walls. The disused circular reservoir inside the fortress, initially intended to remain, was demolished.
The recovered remains opened to the public through an interpretation center in July 2013. The project provided archaeological presentation, night lighting, and improved barrier-free access, while later phases were reserved for further recovery of the interior and the remaining perimeter. After heavy rain in late 2019, a hole appeared near the Queen’s Battery. Investigation identified a room adjoining the castle prison that had remained buried since the dismantling and earth-filling of 1903.
Remains
Hilltop setting and overall plan
The castle occupies La Picota hill in Miranda de Ebro’s historic center. The hill rises slightly above 500 meters above sea level, around 45 meters above the present channel of the Ebro and approximately 150 meters from it. Its position provided a broad view over the Miranda Basin, while a short, relatively steep escarpment strengthened the northern side.
The fortress eventually took a trapezoidal form with four or five corners. Its external walls were built at least partly in ashlar, using regularly cut and carefully fitted stone blocks, while other sections used rubble masonry made from smaller, less regularly shaped stones. The surviving walls do not establish their original height or whether they ended in battlements.
Approach and defensive works
Access began at a barbican and continued through a zigzag labyrinth ascending the hillside. The entrance gate contained separate vehicle and pedestrian openings, with the vehicle passage wider than the other. A moat protected both openings, and another moat followed the western side facing the rest of La Picota hill.
Walls and batteries
Visible masonry is concentrated in the northern and eastern wall sections. Two prominent defensive structures are known as the King’s Battery and the Queen’s Battery. A circular tower survives at the southwestern corner, concealed by vegetation and situated within private property.
Archaeological work also revealed an earlier sixteenth-century Italian-style fortification with projecting redans or ravelins, defensive projections placed beyond or in front of a main defensive line. These structures formed part of an earlier arrangement within the fortress’s later trapezoidal plan.
Archaeological remains and presentation
Excavations uncovered medieval graves and Romanesque remains probably associated with the primitive Church of Santa Maria. They also exposed structural remains of the earlier sixteenth-century fortification and part of the labyrinthine approach to the castle.
Rehabilitation consolidated the visible walls and archaeological remains, especially around the barbican, entrance area, and northern and eastern sectors. An external lift connects with the botanical garden on La Picota’s terraces, while ramps and a second lift lead to a footbridge linked with the barbican entrance. The surviving complex is presented as partially rehabilitated ruins with archaeological interpretation, museum-style displays, and night lighting.
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