Castle La Mota — Attraction in Medina del Campo

Visited in August 2024

This is a beautiful Catle in Medina del Campo, Spain. It is a fairly small town that comes together and has festivals and events in the castle. We saw a lot of people dressed in period costumes for an event the evening we visited but we did not have time to stay. It is a well preserved as well as obviously some reconstruction has been done but done very professionally. Is another of a long list of beautiful Spanish Castles. Lots of parking available...and free. Bathrooms inside also. Not to be missed!

The Mota Castle is a castle located in the town of Medina del Campo , in the province of Valladolid, Castile and León , Spain . Situated on a hill (mota), it dominates the town and its entire extensive region. A walled enclosure started from it, expanded on three occasions, which surrounded the population, and of which some remains remain.

It was built with the characteristic reddish brick typical of the area, using stone only for small details, such as loopholes, shields, etc. The building belongs to the model of castles known as the Valladolid School . It was declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) on November 8, 1904. 1 A scale model of this building is located in the Mudéjar Theme...

Our first stop was the Castillo La Mota, a fantastic brick built 15th century creation with a deep moat and fully restored. The castle was built on relatively low lying ground so didn't dominate the area but the main tower was tall enough to make up for it. It is well signposted from the town and has a large car park and information office.

Entry was free so we did a circuit of the inner walls before going in to the central courtyard. There were flocks of swallows flying around the castle but looked and sounded beautiful but meant that every photo needed extensive editing to remove their blurred images! We couldn't access the keep, other than as part of a tour so we went back to the ticket office to book that. Unfortunately the next tour was the dungeons and gun ports in the walls rather than the keep and the tour of the keep and rooftop wasn't for another hour and a half. This would heave meant we wouldn't get to the next castle in time so we had to skip that, bad planning on my part. I did a walk around the outside of the castle and saw some ruined medieval walls nearby, presumably part of an earlier...

Entrar al patio es gratis.

El castillo es conocido desde el reinado de Pedro I, no obstante, poco sabemos de dicha construcción ya que el castillo que hoy conocemos data del siglo XV. Reinando en Castilla Juan II comienzan las obras de construcción del actual castillo cuyos muros se adaptarán y apoyarán en las viejas murallas medievales del siglo XII. El rey Enrique IV terminará las obras del recinto interior del mismo y culminará la obra de la gran torre del Homenaje. Posteriormente, serán los Reyes Católicos quienes dotarán al castillo de una gran barrera defensiva con una moderna galería de tiro subterránea y excavarán el foso que circunda toda la construcción. Precisamente dicha obra será la que convertirá al Castillo de la Mota en una referencia entre todas las fortalezas de su época, configurándose como uno de los primeros castillos de toda Europa que se adaptó al uso de la artillería.

Además de su importancia militar y arquitectónica, La Mota encierra en sus muros un sinfín de historias y sucesos que dibujan el pasado de esplendor del edificio: su función de archivo de la Corona, el encierro de la princesa Juana, la huida de César de Borgia, su papel en la Guerra de las Comunidades, etc.

Con el paso del tiempo el castillo cayó en desuso debido al cual las instancias interiores originales se perdieron. A partir de su declaración como Monumento Nacional en 1904 se comienzan diversas obras de restauración y reconstrucción del edificio interior para albergar a partir de los años 40 la escuela de mandos de la Sección Femenina.

Hoy en día la fortaleza es propiedad de la Junta de Castilla y León, y en ella se compaginan dos usos diferentes: la Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Castilla y León utiliza las instalaciones interiores para realizar cursos, conferencias y otras actividades culturales de diversa índole; mientras que la Concejalía de Turismo del Ayuntamiento de Medina del Campo desarrolla el uso turístico de la fortaleza.

Para poder desarrollar mucho mejor este último uso, en 2007 se inauguró el Centro de Recepción de Visitantes del Castillo de La Mota, desde donde organizan visitas guiadas a la fortaleza, además de mostrar al visitante un interesante yacimiento arqueológico de la Edad del Hierro, sobre el que dicho Centro se asienta, y de proporcionar información del...