The province of Valladolid treasures a large number of imposing castles, fortresses and walled enclosures where past and present merge for an epic experience.

Fortresses of Roman origin, such as that of San Pedro de Latarce, castles that have treasured valuable archives and documents for centuries, such as that of Simancas, and even a castle converted into the Provincial Wine Museum, in Peñafiel.

Become the protagonist of this story through the fabulous historical re-enactments and festivals, the different dramatized guided tours, lively historical markets and many more adventures.

A little history

These lands, inhabited since prehistoric times, welcomed the Roman legions, housed Celtiberian settlements; during the Middle Ages they witnessed the border battles between the kingdoms of Castile and León and, later, the civil unrest between monarchs and great lords.

Since the mid-fifteenth century, Enrique IV reforms and expands the castles of Portillo and La Mota of Medina del Campo, creating a model so imitated throughout the century that it became a characteristic style, the so-called School of Valladolid.

Soon, the great nobles respond to the trend initiated by the Valladolid monarch: Torrelobatón, Peñafiel and Fuensaldaña share similarities in their entrances by the drawbridge, their accesses with a double-elbow corridor and their intramural cells.

Nobles and enriched learned subjects of often Jewish-convert or humble origin, acquire manors and erect residential castles, which reproduce to scale the great models: on the square floor stands the powerful keep with palatial interior, whose height is equal to the side of the enclosure and twice the height of it, which made it the dominant and strongest tower, where the governor swore loyalty and to defend the fortress with courage.

The results are magnificent and the studied proportions give the buildings a solid and majestic appearance. Internally they imitate the structure of the Valladolid urban palaces, with sumptuous porticoed patios, around which residential rooms, warehouses, stables and outbuildings for service are neatly articulated.

There were many more castles, walls and watchtowers in the province of Valladolid, even so today a large number of them are preserved, keeping stories and legends that you cannot miss.