Castillo de Alcala de los Gazules

With the subsequent growth of the city the building the boundary passed beyond the castle walls so it has become the Castillo de Alcala de los Gazules. The governors in the late eighteenth century of the castle were magistrate Delgado Ronda Alonso de Mendoza and Perez de la Pena.

The castle retained its defensive use until 1810 when the town was attacked by the French whose troops caused heavy casualties. In retaliation the following year Napoleon's soldiers came to put to death the population, looted and burned the village and blew up the castle.

Today the castle is in ruins but preserved are paintings from the walls and towers and two gates, called the Villa Nueva. Parts of the keep still stand with walls of a rectangular-shaped slope.

Del Castillo highest point is the remains of the tower that still stands and one can see the traces of a vault with an ogival arch, the gate is divided into three levels, which mark different epochs.

Downstairs is the Beaterio Jesus, Mary and Joseph that now houses a nursing home and school, both run by a religious order exclusively from Alcala de los Gazules, founded in 1788.

Since 2006 a draft culture development proposal is being implemented to open cultural routes around Andalusí Cadiz. The Tower of Homage is undergoing a restoration process and will bring value to the tourism plan as it will provide the interpretation of history and provide a functional and spatial monument, including the historic defensive system of the Castle.

The Construcciones Torres Reviriego was awarded the tender amounting to 157,682 euros from the Provincial Plan of Cooperation Works and Municipal Services Competition in 2007. This work tender covered 400 meters and an area of 2,400 square meters.

In 1984 the Monument was awarded Cultural Heritage status under the protection of the general declaration of protection of heritage sites of the decree of April 22, 1949, and the law 16/1985 on Spanish Historical Heritage. Its access is free.

Today as a relic it is administered by the Archaeological Site of Alcala de los Gazules whose code is 110010008.

The El Castillo de Alcala de los Gazules is at the top of a populated hill in the area of Alcala de los Gazules is in the province of Cadiz. The Castle armour belongs to the military style of Almohad or Berber Muslims.

There was an early Roman settlement where the castle was built by the Muslims between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and was in use until it was partially destroyed in the Spanish War of Independence in 1811, The Muslim population would be confined to the the Qalat Yazula and later the Castillo de los Gazules later to be released by the king of Granada whose family bore the same name as that of the castle.

In 1264 the city was conquered by the Christian armies of Alfonso X the Wise, who in his Chronicle is the first person give to the building the name Alcala de los Gazules. The building was donated to the religious order of St. Maria of Spain. And in later years would rely on the Casa de Alcala and the patron whose title was the Duque de Alcalá.