Maqueda is a Spanish town located 80 kilometers from

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and 45 kilometers from Toledo. Located within the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

Castilla-La Mancha and the

province of Toledo Toledo () is a Province (Spain), province of central Spain, in the western part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid Province, Madrid, Cuenca Province (Spai ...

, Maqueda is located in the comarca of Torrijos. The town is best known for its remarkably well-preserved castle, the ''Castillo de la Vela''.

Etymology

The name "Maqueda" comes from the root ''mkd'' and the

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

term ''Maqqada'', which means "stable", "firm", or "solid". Other experts believe that the name derives from the root ''kyd'' and the Arabic term ''Makîda'', which means "strategically located" or "strong plaza". It is also thought to be derived from the same roots as the name of the

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

town of Makkidah in reflection of the Jewish presence in

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 ...

and

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

History

It was fortified under in the 10th century under Abd al-Rahman III. Maqueda passed to control of Castile-León in the context of the conquest of the

Taifa of Toledo The Taifa of Toledo () was an Islamic polity (''taifa'') located in the centre of the Iberian Peninsula in the High Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Dhulnunids, a Hawwara Berber clan. It emerged after 1018 upon the fracturing of the Caliphate of ...

in 1085, and it was later developed under the initiative of Alfonso VII. The countryside of Maqueda was ravaged in the 1197 Almohad offensive. Maqueda was donated to the

Order of Calatrava The Order of Calatrava (, ) was one of the Spanish military orders, four Spanish military orders and the first Military order (society), military order founded in Kingdom of Castile, Castile, but the second to receive papal approval. The papal bu ...

in June 1201. It received the title of town () in 1324.

The ''castillo de la vela''

The ''castillo de la vela'', also known as the ''castillo de Maqueda'' is located on the outskirts of town. Originally of Moorish design, 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 ...

was rebuilt and expanded during the 15th century. It was eventually appropriated by the state, which established a

Guardia Civil The Civil Guard (; ) is one of the two national law enforcement agencies of Spain. As a national gendarmerie, it is military in nature and is responsible for civil policing under the authority of both the Ministry of the Interior and the Minis ...

post within the castle and provided for its future conservation. The castle is

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...

in shape and sits on two distinct

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...

s. The castle's protections include 3.5-meter-thick walls,

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

s on two sides, and a number of circular

tower A tower is a tall Nonbuilding structure, structure, taller than it is wide, often by a significant factor. Towers are distinguished from guyed mast, masts by their lack of guy-wires and are therefore, along with tall buildings, self-supporting ...

s. The exterior of the castle is free to visit, though visitors are not permitted to enter the castle proper. The castle was declared an artistic historical

monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

on 3 June 1931.

References

Municipalities in the Province of Toledo Towns in Spain {{CastileLaMancha-geo-stub