Spain 2010 part 4

Last Friday we had the opportunity to travel north of Madrid to visit two castles; the Alcázar de Segovia and the Manzanares el Real. We met at 0900 from the main plaza in Alcalá and traveled by bus first to Segovia and then to Manzanares. Although it was raining, everyone was cheerful and we enjoyed thoroughly the experience. You will also notice in some of the pictures an aqueduct. This is in Segovia near the castle and was built by the Romans in the 1st century. No mortar or cement was used of any kind and is only held together by the weight of the stone. Its an engineering marvel and was even in use up to about fifteen years ago as an aqueduct. The following is a more detailed description of both castles taken from the internet:

The Alcázar of Segovia (literally, Segovia Castle) is a stone fortification, located in the old city of Segovia, Spain. Rising out on a rocky crag above the confluence of the rivers Eresma and Clamores near the Guadarrama mountains, it is one of the most distinctive castle-palaces in Spain by virtue of its shape - like the bow of a ship. The Alcázar was originally built as a fortress but has served as a royal palace, a state prison, a Royal Artillery College and a military academy since then. The Alcázar of Segovia, like many fortifications in Spain, started off as an Arab fort, but little of that structure remains. The first reference to this particular Alcázar was in 1120, around 32 years after the city of Segovia returned to Christian hands (during the time when Alfonso VI of Castile reconquered lands to the south of the Duero river down to Toledo and beyond). However, archaeological evidence suggests that the site of this Alcázar was once used in Roman times as a fortification. This theory is further substantiated by the presence of Segovia's famous Roman Aqueduct.

Manzanares el Real Castle lies 50 kilometers from Madrid on the southern slope of the Guadarrama mountain range, between Santillana reservoir and the crags of La Pedriza. Construction commencing in 1475, it has been used in several motion pictures, most notably El Cid. The Castle is an impressive example of fifteenth century Castilian military architecture, and one of the last of its kind in Spain. In fact, after initially being user as a fortress, it became a residential Palace of one of the noblest families in Castilla since the Middle Ages: the Mendozas. The Mendoza family, whose lineage goes back to the XI century and who were linked to the Spanish monarchy, received titles of nobility and considerable inheritances for their services to the Crown. The connection between the Mendoza's and the territory of Real de Manzanares dates from the XIV century when Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza (1340-1385), faithful servant of Enrique II of Trastamara, was granted extensive estates in the Somosierra mountain range from Buitrago to Colmenar. (taken from castles.org)