Location: Madrid
Constructed: 1475
The new castle of Manzanares el Real, also known as the Mendoza
castle or, simply, as the Manzanares el Real castle, is a
palace-fortress of late medieval origin located in the municipality
of Manzanares el Real (Madrid, Spain). , at the foot of the
Guadarrama mountain range and next to the Manzanares river, which in
that section is retained in the Santillana reservoir.
Built
in the 15th century on a Romanesque-Mudejar church, which was
integrated into the structure, it was conceived as the palatial
residence of the House of Mendoza, one of the most influential
lineages of Castile during the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
It replaced a previous castle, which was located in a nearby
enclave, also owned by the aforementioned family.
The
architect Juan Guas (1430-1496) participated in its construction,
who used Elizabethan Gothic traces, with Spanish-Muslim influences.
It is considered the precedent of the Palacio del Infantado
(Guadalajara), a key work of Spanish Renaissance architecture, where
the aforementioned author defined the palace prototype of the reign
of the Catholic Monarchs.
Thanks to successive restorations,
it is in an excellent state of conservation. It currently houses an
Interpretation Center about the Middle Ages, as well as a collection
of tapestries, paintings, armor and furniture from the 16th to 19th
centuries. It was declared a Historical-Artistic Monument in 1931.
It is property of the Duchy of Infantado, although its
administration and use corresponds to the General Directorate of
Tourism of the Community of Madrid, which allows its visit and the
celebration of public and institutional events within of the
enclosure.
The lands surrounding the upper reaches of the
Manzanares River, known as El Real de Manzanares since the time of
Alfonso and forestry.
The Communities of Villa y Tierra de
Segovia and Madrid were involved in various disputes throughout the
13th century, which were resolved in the 14th century by King Juan I
of Castile (1358-1390) with the donation of the region to the House
of Mendoza. , through Pedro González de Mendoza (1340-1385), butler
of the monarch.
His eldest son, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
(1367-1404), greatest admiral of Castile, is credited with the
construction of the first fortress in the area, of which some
remains are preserved, which are called the old castle of Manzanares
el Real. In the last third of the 15th century, the Mendozas decided
to replace it with another building, larger and more luxurious, in
accordance with the notable political and economic influence
achieved by the family.
The new residence was promoted by
Diego Hurtado de Mendoza y de la Vega (1417-1479), grandson of the
admiral and first duke of Infantado. Thanks to his will, it is known
that the works were already underway in June 1475:
I send to the
Church of Santa María de la Nava, which is located in the castle
that I built in my town of Manzanares, seven thousand maravedíes of
inheritance oath, (...) so that the religious of said church are
forced to say and perpetually say a mass every day for my soul (...)
and for the souls of the deceased who are and will be buried in that
church.
After his death, work was paralyzed for a time. His
first-born son, Íñigo López de Mendoza y de la Vega (1438-1500),
probably took them up again in 1480 and chose to modify the original
project, with the incorporation of a new body on the eastern side,
which significantly increased the living space. Likewise, he hired
the services of Juan Guas (1430-1496), architect of the Catholic
Monarchs and author of the Palacio del Infantado (Guadalajara) and
the Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes (Toledo), to homogenize and
beautify the complex.
The Elizabethan Gothic elements of the
building are due to Guas, among which the southern gallery, the
porticoed patio, the knights that top the angular towers and the
decoration of both the crowning and the walkway overhang stand out.
Regarding the old fortress, the House of Mendoza decided to
dismantle and abandon it, not only to reuse its factory materials,
but also to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemies of
the lineage, given its proximity to the new building.
In the
time of Íñigo López de Mendoza y Pimentel (1493-1566), fourth Duke
of Infantado, just a century after it was completed, the castle of
Manzanares el Real was practically uninhabited, as the activity of
the duchy focused on the city of Guadalajara. The situation of
abandonment worsened with his death, because economic problems and
lawsuits arose between the heirs of the House of Mendoza.
The
Ducal House itself underwent a first restoration in 1914. Its
architect was the architect Vicente Lampérez y Romea (1861-1923),
who applied the method of anastylosis and historicist criteria in
the reconstruction of certain structures, such as the porticoed
patio, which was completely ruined. In 1964 a new intervention took
place, this time funded by the administration, which, under the
direction of José Manuel González Valcárcel, was aimed at the
creation of a Castle Museum.
In 1965, Íñigo de Arteaga y
Falguera (1905-1997), 18th Duke of Infantado, gave the use of the
castle to the defunct Provincial Council of Madrid, which continued
with the consolidation and rehabilitation works. These works made it
possible to open the monument to public visits, starting in 1977.
In 1982, the building hosted the act of constitution of the
Assembly of Parliamentarians for Madrid, in which the drafting paper
of the Madrid Statute of Autonomy project was presented. With the
entry into force of the aforementioned statute in 1983, the complex
was transferred to the Community of Madrid, after assuming the
powers and assets of the Provincial Council. The new organization
also received a collection of ten Flemish tapestries from the 17th
century, which it decided to install inside the fortress.
The
Community of Madrid acted again on the castle in 2005, in order to
implement a new museum and tourist use project. This plan was
completed in the following years with the creation of a
Renaissance-inspired garden, inaugurated in 2013.
The castle was built in the last third of the 15th century, at a
time when the construction of fortresses, with the Reconquista
practically completed and the noble houses fully established, did
not respond so much to defensive needs as to the desire to convey an
image of wealth and power. The typical architectural elements of
fortifications, such as machicolations, merlons, loopholes, moats or
[barbican], are put at the service of this idea and are subordinated
to the concept of a stately mansion, more in line with the
pre-Renaissance ideas of the time.
Within this context, the
castle of Manzanares el Real stands as the palatial residence of one
of the most influential lineages of late medieval Castile. Under the
appearance of a fortress, the Mendozas built a grandiose palace, in
which aesthetic concerns prevail, as proven by the fact that they
hired the prestigious architect Juan Guas, over any defensive
intention.
The final result is a set that, from the basis of
military architecture, adopts the premises of palatial architecture,
such as the balance of forms, the symmetry of volumes and the taste
for decoration. In addition to these features, the The castle
presents some traces of religious architecture, visible in the
chapel it houses inside.
The building takes the model of the palatial castles of its time and
adopts a quadrangular plan for its main body (30 x 30 meters), to which
a straight section is attached on one of its sides. It is structured in
six levels (ground floor, first mezzanine, main floor, second mezzanine,
upper gallery and roof gallery), as well as a basement. Cylindrical
towers rise in three of its corners, while the remaining one, located in
the southeast corner, is presided over by a taller and square tower
(although with an octagonal top), like a keep.
A barbican extends
around the main body, formed by a barrier about five meters high, in
which different embrasures or fire mouths are opened, prepared to deploy
artillery. They are carved with the cross of the Holy Sepulcher of
Jerusalem, for the title enjoyed by Cardinal Mendoza.
Other
defensive resources, typical of fortified enclosures, are the moat
(currently dismantled and partly filled); the list or defensive
corridor, which is protected with a shooting gallery; the walkway made
in an overhang (reminiscent of the obstacle existing in the mid-medieval
fortresses, which made it difficult for possible assailants to climb);
the knights raised on the angular towers; or the outer door, arranged in
the western part and guarded by two flanking turrets.
Unlike the external part, with its unmistakable military physiognomy,
the interior is conceived as a sumptuous palace, with a succession of
large halls, which are distributed around a porticoed patio, a
substitute for the old parade grounds of centuries-old fortifications.
previous.
The patio is the work of Juan Guas, although it was
completely rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century, according to a
project by the architect and restorer Vicente Lampérez. It is delimited
by a double corridor with two superimposed galleries, supported by
depressed carpanel arches, with fluted shafts and octagonal capitals,
carved with floral and figurative motifs. The upper corridor also
includes a balustrade adorned with rose windows, while in the lower part
three 16th century mural shields were installed, with the arms of the
Mendoza, the Enríquez and the Álvarez de Toledo, all of them surnames
linked to the Duchy of Infantado.
But the exterior also brings
together characteristic features of palatial architecture, which soften
the rigid forms of military constructions. These are purely ornamental
elements, such as the moldings that support the walkway or the balls of
the towers, although some of them also have a recreational function.
This is the case with the southern gallery, whose layout dominating
the valley of the Manzanares River indicates the contemplative function,
as a large viewpoint, with which it was designed. Named in the 20th
century with the name Paseador or Galería de Juan Guas, in reference to
its author, it consists of a loggia of lowered arches, with double
pointed and lobed traceries. It is considered one of the most relevant
galleries of the Elizabethan Gothic style.
Many of the decorative
formulas used by Guas come from the Spanish-Muslim tradition. This is
the case of the network of rhomboidal plates that supports the southern
gallery, inspired by the Islamic sebka; of the muqarnas that give shape
to the moldings of the walkway, mentioned above; or the large four-lobed
rhombuses, made of lime, that frame the stone balls of the towers and
which are currently very blurred.
For different researchers,
these resources were a test of those used later in the Palacio del
Infantado, which Guas built in Guadalajara, also commissioned by the
Mendozas.
The chapel occupies the lower level of the eastern body, the only
section of the castle that has not been restored. Its apse and
presbyterial arch are preserved, both in Romanesque-Mudejar style,
corresponding to the primitive church of Nuestra Señora de la Nava, from
the 13th century, on which the building was built. In addition to these
elements, a Gothic archway from a later period remains standing, from
which three naves are configured. The arches are supported on octagonal
pillars and are semicircular in the center and pointed at the sides.
Above the chapel there were several floors, now completely
demolished, where different rooms were distributed, including the
library.
Regarding construction materials, the factory is made of granite, a
very abundant stone in the Guadarrama mountain range. In some parts of
the building, limestone is also used, as is the case in the galleries of
the porticoed patio, in addition to brick, visible in the old medieval
church.
Masonry and ashlar are preferably used on the walls,
while, in the elements of greater ornamental value, such as the doorway,
the loopholes, the southern gallery or the patio itself, carved ashlar
is used.
The Manzanares el Real castle is a museum based on historicist
criteria, included in the Comprehensive Tourist Use Plan that the
Community of Madrid launched in 2005. Its premises house several
collections in storage, made up of original pieces and replicas, with
which the palace atmosphere of the 16th to 17th centuries is recreated
and idealized. The equipped rooms are the hallway, the Santillana Room,
the Infantado Room, the Ladies' Stand, the bedroom and the oratory
attached to it.
In these rooms, paintings, armor and furniture
from the 16th to 19th centuries are exhibited, as well as ten tapestries
of Flemish origin, which were deposited by the defunct Provincial
Council of Madrid, an organization to which they belonged before their
transfer to the Community of Madrid.
Considered the objects of
greatest historical and artistic value in the exhibition, they were made
in the mid-17th century in Brussels. The most complete series is called
Life of Julius Caesar and consists of five fabrics, signed by Ian Van
Leefdael and Gerardo Van der Strecken. From the series The Life of Man,
only two works are preserved, made by Ian Francis and Franz Van den
Hecke, on cartoons by Rubens' disciples, with the possibility of
participation by the master. The tenth tapestry has a biblical theme and
its title is unknown. .