{"id":24277,"date":"2026-05-16T04:31:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/24277\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:31:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:31:13","slug":"underinvestment-crumbling-walls-and-rave-parties-spain-doesnt-know-what-to-do-with-its-castles-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/24277\/","title":{"rendered":"Underinvestment, crumbling walls and rave parties: Spain doesn\u2019t know what to do with its castles | Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA nursery of ruins functioning as a quarry.\u201d Architect Ignacio Gil Crespo adopts the analysis that art critic Juan Antonio Gaya Nu\u00f1o used in the early 1950s to assess the state of Spanish castles<\/a>. \u201cWhen you visit a town where the castle is somewhat ruined, it\u2019s very easy to see fragments of it in the houses,\u201d explains the specialist, a member of the National Defensive Architecture Plan commission. Although the general state of fortresses remains, in general, dilapidated, some things have changed in the last century. \u201cWe have 800 or 1,000 years of neglect and 100 years of awareness and restoration,\u201d he clarifies. <\/p>\n

However, the lack of information continues to be a significant obstacle in the national landscape \u2014 inseparable from towers, walls, battlements, and barbicans. To prevent the gradual decay of fortifications, it is first necessary to know how many there are and where they are located, but successive attempts to count, classify, and assess their state of preservation have yet to be completed. \u201cThere is still no definitive inventory; often, people don\u2019t even know they exist,\u201d laments Gil Crespo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first catalog dates back to 1968, and it\u2019s the one recognized by the Ministry of Culture, but it\u2019s completely insufficient because the number of entries is very low,\u201d explains Miguel \u00c1ngel Bru, a director of the Spanish Association of Friends of Castles. This organization has been determined to correct this lack of data and has been working for half a century to catalog all the defensive structures \u2014 with a result of more than 10,000 \u2014 but the complex process is not yet finished (the actual number could be almost double that). \u201cIt\u2019s somewhat outrageous that we can\u2019t agree on something that countries like France or Germany have so clearly defined,\u201d criticizes the archaeologist, who hits the nail on the head: \u201cThe fact that [Spain\u2019s] regional governments have jurisdiction over heritage […] is good because they are closer to the people; the problem is that, in practice, each one does pretty much as it pleases, and even their regulations contradict the 1985 National Heritage Law.\u201d Including, or not including, a building in that hypothetical official list is not a minor matter: all castles have the highest level of protection since the 1949 decree (first national monuments and currently cultural heritage assets) and, in addition, they can benefit from tax exemptions such as property tax<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The alarming state of neglect of Spanish fortifications has returned to public debate after a visitor filmed the collapse of one of the towers of Escalona Castle (Toledo) on his cell phone in March, an incident that fortunately did not cause any injuries. The force of the collapse and the timing of the filming certainly caused a huge stir, but those who have spent decades researching castles remain unfazed. \u201cSeeing a photo of a pile of rubble and comparing it to the previous image is always distressing, but it\u2019s only mentioned as a curiosity,\u201d warns Miguel Sobrino, author of the monograph Castles and Walls (La Esfera, 2022). The educator maintains that this phenomenon is relatively common and points to other cases that received less public attention, such as the collapses at the castles of Almonacid, also in Toledo, and Pe\u00f1arroya (Ciudad Real). Or the frequent collapses of walls, as in Salamanca, Plasencia, Lugo, or Huesca. Archaeologist Miguel \u00c1ngel Bru puts figures to the high risk of destruction: \u201cSix out of every 10 castles in Spain are at risk of collapsing, but if we\u2019re talking about smaller collapses, partial falls, we\u2019re already talking about eight out of 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Mota del Marqu\u00e9s Castle in Valladolid.Juan-Enrique (Getty Images\/iStockphoto)<\/p>\n

An \u201cemblematic example\u201d of neglect and real danger of collapse, warns Bru, is located on the Tagus River, on the border between Toledo and Aranjuez. \u201cOreja Castle, built on the site of an ancient Andalusian city and boasting an exceptional tower, has enormous structural problems, and we\u2019ve been saying all along that it\u2019s going to eventually fall down.\u201d Inaction and abandonment, in this case, are more than evident. \u201cPeople have slept inside, squatting, and they\u2019ve even held rave parties,\u201d the archaeologist emphasizes.<\/p>\n

Another striking example is the last surviving element of a medieval castle<\/a> whose silhouette can be seen from the A-6 freeway as it crosses the province of Valladolid. \u201cThe tower of Mota del Marqu\u00e9s, which has a spectacular vaulted ceiling, appears cut in half, as if levitating, waiting for the day it might collapse,\u201d Bru explains. Researcher Miguel Sobrino, for his part, is particularly concerned about other fortifications in Castile and Le\u00f3n that are slowly crumbling, such as those of San Leonardo de Yag\u00fce (Soria) and Cea (Le\u00f3n). Even so, he prefers to look to the future with a degree of hope, given the ongoing rehabilitation and consolidation of important fortresses like those of Belmonte de Campos (Palencia) and Ucero (Soria).<\/p>\n

\"\"The remains of Oreja Castle, in the province of Toledo.SIM\u00d3N ERNESTO ARENAS (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Gil Crespo has clearly identified the most damaging threats to Spanish fortresses: \u201cA castle is a functional element; when it loses its function, its defensive one, it is abandoned.\u201d Some of them, he specifies, have been in this state of disuse for a millennium, a circumstance that has not occurred, for example, in religious buildings, such as churches or cathedrals. He also points to \u201cgeology itself,\u201d which \u201cerodes the base, producing cracks and even complete collapses.\u201d This is precisely the factor that threatens the castle of La Raya (near Monteagudo de las Vicar\u00edas, Soria). \u201cThe edge of the plateau on which it stands is gradually crumbling, and recently there have been collapses in some walls; these are very difficult causes to resolve because we cannot stop the Earth\u2019s tectonic plates<\/a>,\u201d he explains. Gil Crespo\u2019s team has drawn up the master plan \u2014 a document outlining future actions \u2014 for Atienza Castle (Guadalajara), where \u201cin some areas there is an imminent risk, not only to the integrity of the monument, but also to the safety of people.\u201d The architect recounts how \u201cone Tuesday at 10 a.m., while we were working there, a stone from the wall fell through the gate where locals pass to buy bread.\u201d Fortunately, there were no consequences.<\/p>\n

\"\"Atienza Castle in Guadalajara.Pavel Dudek \/ Alamy Stock Photo<\/p>\n

However, it is human behavior that most seriously threatens these buildings. \u201cNor should we blame the people of a village for taking stones from a castle to build their house; I think we all would have done the same.\u201d Gil Crespo again points to looting, very common in defensive buildings that became unofficial quarries for building materials when they collapsed, as the historian Gaya Nu\u00f1o denounced. \u201cIf you walk through the Segovian village of Maderuelo, you see stones from the castle on every facade,\u201d he describes. Although, when the architect speaks of \u201canthropogenic causes,\u201d he refers, above all, to the \u201cpoor actions\u201d that humans have carried out on numerous fortifications due to ignorance. \u201cIf you build a parador (a state-run hotel), as happened a lot in the 1960s, and open a door in the middle of a wall, that element ceases to serve its purpose,\u201d he explains. Or also, as a result of fear: \u201cSometimes inadequate reinforcements are made with materials such as reinforced concrete or cement, which is very rigid, does not breathe and releases salts, so it ends up causing more damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why has Spain turned its back on its castles? Bru believes the poor state of these fortresses is due to the \u201ctourist-centric view\u201d of these buildings. \u201cWhen investment is made, it\u2019s not out of necessity for the castle itself, but for the potential profit that can be generated in the surrounding area through tourism,\u201d he argues. Sobrino, for his part, maintains: \u201cWe still have the opportunity to preserve medieval castles in a highly authentic state, something that is very difficult in France.\u201d Of course, the flip side of this situation seems to reveal the key to the current predicament. \u201cPerhaps, because they haven\u2019t been transformed over time, we sometimes don\u2019t quite know what to do with them, and that is indeed a danger; brainstorming in the case of castles can be like acid rain,\u201d he warns. For Gil Crespo, the current situation must be analyzed within a much broader timeframe: \u201cWithin the history of a monument that may be a thousand or fifteen hundred years old, we are just one more phase.\u201d A simple stage that, in his opinion, should be limited to \u201cpreserving and documenting\u201d this ancient legacy.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cA nursery of ruins functioning as a quarry.\u201d Architect Ignacio Gil Crespo adopts the analysis that art critic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[233,12926,12924,12928,12927,17,234,12925],"class_list":["post-24277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-aranjuez","tag-castilla-y-leon","tag-juan-antonio-gaya-nuno","tag-leon","tag-soria","tag-spain","tag-toledo","tag-valladolid"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}