The Castle of Simancas (also known as Simancas Castle) is a fortified complex in

Simancas Simancas is a town and municipality of central Spain, located in the province of Valladolid, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is situated approximately 10 km southwest of the provincial capital Valladolid, on the r ...

, central

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

stands in the center of town and houses the current

Archivo General de Simancas The General Archive of Simancas (, also known by its acronym, ''AGS'') is an official archive located in the Castle of Simancas, in the town of Simancas, province of Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain. It was founded in 1540, making this th ...

History

The site of the castle was at one time a

Moorish The term Moor is an exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a single, distinct or self-defi ...

fortress. In the 15th century the

House of Enríquez The House of Enríquez is a Spanish noble lineage of royal origin. History The House of Enríquez originated in the Crown of Castile, in the person of Fadrique Alfonso, Lord of Haro, Frederick of Castile :es:Casa de Borgoña (Castilla), (Casa ...

constructed a new fortification on top of the existing ruins, restored the Moorish walls, and added a chapel. The new castle was seized by the Spanish Crown during the reign of the

Catholic Monarchs The Catholic Monarchs were Isabella I of Castile, Queen Isabella I of Crown of Castile, Castile () and Ferdinand II of Aragon, King Ferdinand II of Crown of Aragón, Aragon (), whose marriage and joint rule marked the ''de facto'' unification of ...

and turned into a prison. In 1540 the

was established in the castle, the first official archive of Castile. Felipe II transformed the castle into General Archive of the Kingdom, which housed one of the most important archives in Europe with 35 million documents. The castle was put under the protection of the Spanish government in 1949. In 1952 renovations were enacted to reduce risk to the archives. The castle is now open to tourists and researchers.

Fortification and structure

The castle's foundation, walls, battlements, gates, and bridges all date back to the late 15th century, mostly attributed from 1467 to 1480. The end of the

Reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...

in 1492 ended the immediate need for a large defensive fortification, and as such the castle's various reconstructions moulded it into an administrative building. Later additions to the castle incorporate aspects of the

Herrerian The Herrerian style ( or ''arquitectura herreriana'') of architecture was developed in Spain during the last third of the 16th century under the reign of Philip II of Spain, Philip II (1556–1598), and continued in force in the 17th century ...

style of architecture. The current archive housed within the castle has been protected with fireproofing measures, and the 15th-century chapel built by the Enríquez has been restored.

References

{{Authority control Castles in Castile and León