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Arcos de Jalón Castle, dating from the 14th century, stands on the site of an old Arab fortress. It was besieged in the 14th century by the supporters of the Castilian King Pedro I, who fought against the rebel D. Fernán Gómez de Albornoz, supporter of his bastard brother Enrique de Trastamara.
This castle has a rectangular floor plan although it is quite irregular due to the fact that it adapts to the rugged land of a high and narrow hill that divides the town into two parts. A robust keep is attached to the castle walls which are made of thick stonework, horizontal brick rows and ashlar with stonecutter’s marks on the corners. There is only one entrance which is located high up and two loophole windows.
Inside there are remains of the structures that divided the tower, which once was taller, into different floors, and all throughout the perimeter, you can see where the foundation walls began and some towers that reinforced the structure.
This fortress is so unique due to the double-lined brick walls, a technique that mainly had a structural purpose, but has also given the castle beautiful reddish lines between the stonework. This construction method has a clear Mudejar origin which was most likely influenced by the amount of Muslims in the village and in the area of Aragon.
References:The Clementinum is a historic complex of buildings in Prague. Until recently the complex hosted the National, University and Technical libraries, the City Library also being located nearby on Mariánské Náměstí. The Technical library and the Municipal library have moved to the Prague National Technical Library at Technická 6 since 2009. It is currently in use as the National Library of the Czech Republic.
Its history dates from the existence of a chapel dedicated to Saint Clement in the 11th century. A Dominican monastery was founded in the medieval period, which was transformed in 1556 to a Jesuit college. In 1622 the Jesuits transferred the library of Charles University to the Klementinum, and the college was merged with the University in 1654. The Jesuits remained until 1773, when the Klementinum was established as an observatory, library, and university by the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.