The site of the Simancas castle was at one time a Moorish fortress. In the 15th century the House of Enríquez 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 and turned into a prison. In 1540 the Archivo General de Simancas was established in the castle, the first official archive of Castile. Felipe IItransformed 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.
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 reconquesta in 1492 ended the immediate need for a large defensive fortification, and as such the castle's various reconstructions molded it into an administrative building. Later additions to the castle incorporate aspects of the Herrerian 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:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).