New Castle of Manzanares el Real
P3
The Manzanares el Real Castle is located in the Spanish municipality of Manzanares el Real around 32 kilometers north of Madrid at the foot of the hills of the Sierra de Guadarrama.
History
The oldest castle in this place is guaranteed for the 13th century. She had three corner towers in a wall wreath and a massive residential tower. Your probably most famous resident was the writer Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marqués de Santillana, who had received the castle as a fief from the hand of King John II.
Built in 1475 Mendoza's son, the first Duke of El Infantado, a new castle and gave the plant its current floor plan. The outer wall wreath has semi-circular bastions and is relatively low. Three turrets with machicolated and the massive donjon were the main castle. 1480 was the isabelino - Mudejar Gallery, making it one of the most beautiful examples of Flamboyant incurred by the second Duke of Infantado. As a responsible architect drew Juan Güas, who also designed the wrong machicolated the plant and the octagonal tower on the actual dungeon.
On the towers of the west side and on the Donjon tower again towers with smaller diameter up. They are decorated with round stone bosses and balls. This lavish ornamentation may serve the purpose of hiding the defensibility of the building, and so deceive representatives of the Spanish kings, who disapproved of new castles and often captured their owners.
The castle served to protect the ducal possessions. She stood in a prominent place on the border between Castile, the Kingdom of León and Castile -La Mancha today. Who wanted to conquer Madrid from the north, had to pass the massive castle. Enemies should be intimidated in advance solely by the imposing appearance of the plant.