Alcalá de Guadaíra Castle, Alcalá de Guadaíra, Spain

Alcalá de Guadaíra Castle is the result of almost 4,500 years of human history. The older archaeological findings take us to the Bronze Age (2nd millennium BCE), when a small walled village settled down on the East edge of the Hill.

The current castle was built during the times of Muslim domination, in the 11th and 12th centuries, although after the Reconquest by Ferdinand III is when it acquired its definitive layout. Important development was still taking place right up to the late 15th and early 16th century.

Today the castle is restored after been abandoned a long time since the 19th century.

User Reviews

mark briars (2 years ago)
Fabulous Alcazaba oozing history

Mic (3 years ago)
Great view over the town, sadly quite a lot of rubbish around the walls

Kira Browne (3 years ago)
I loved this castle! Always nice to climb to a high point to see views over a new town, and this is great for that - you can see the bridge with the dragon, and the white houses of the town. It's free to enter, and I was the only person there most of the time (I visited on a Thursday morning). While it might not be to everyone's taste, as there are no information boards to explain anything, and it's not super clean (no human rubbish, but animals dropping etc), I loved the fact that it almost felt like I had just come across the ruins and were exploring them myself! There are some built walkways and steps, but also plenty of parts where you can just walk along old walls, or steps which are half broken away which you can scramble up to get to the top of a tower. There are also no handrails or barriers, with walkways just having a drop to one side, so many parts are not suitable if you don't like heights or are less mobile, and kids would need to be closely supervised. It's quite spacious, and definitely worth visiting even if you don't want to climb all around, as it's free to enter and I can't imagine there's ever a queue.

Mateo Lott (4 years ago)
Good place to visit

Francisco Ramos (4 years ago)
Quite interesting ruins. Unfortunately not well preserved

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Following Hadrian

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