The Zalia Castle is easily accessed by the road up from La Viñuela Dam address Ventas de Zafarraya-Granada.
Although hardly can be seen today due to their state of total ruin, Zalia Castle had an irregural plant of approximately 120m x 150 m. You can still see some towers and remains of the wall between the gorse and scrubland existing around.
Zalia Castle had a double walled, both being very irregular. Account outside with thick masonry walls, punctuated by towers of square section and some circular; they have disappeared several stretches of wall, while other very displaced. The fortress provided inside of a water tank and a large entrance gate flanked by two large masonry towers regrown with mud on top. Its main entrance was facing north.
It is believed that it was a fortress rebuilt by the Arabs on the other primitive built by the Phoenicians. In September 1485 it was conquered by the Catholic Monarchs. After the war of the Alpujarras the Zalia Castle became prison-bishopric.
References:The Church of St Donatus name refers to Donatus of Zadar, who began construction on this church in the 9th century and ended it on the northeastern part of the Roman forum. It is the largest Pre-Romanesque building in Croatia.
The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.
The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.