Royal Alcázar of Segovia

The Alcázar of Segovia stands at the very western end of the old city, on a rock spur where the Eresma and Clamores rivers meet, so that from the valley floor it seems to grow straight out of the cliff. Its outline is the one people picture when they imagine a fairy-tale castle: a cluster of round turrets capped with pointed grey slate spires, a sheer keep, a moat and a drawbridge on the only side not guarded by the drop. The slate cones are not medieval at all but a sixteenth-century addition ordered by Philip II, and that northern-looking roofline set on Castilian stone is a large part of its strange beauty.

The site has been fortified since Roman times, and a castle here is first documented in 1120. Most of what stands today grew between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. The massive Tower of John II, raised in the first half of the fifteenth century, is the heaviest element of the composition: a square Gothic block with Islamic touches and a double Gothic window, climbed inside by a spiral stair of 156 steps. From its top the view runs over the rooftops of the old city and out across the open country beyond the rivers.

Inside, the royal rooms carry Mudéjar decoration, work in the Islamic tradition made for Christian kings, under barrel vaults and beside paired windows. Much of this is careful restoration: a fire in 1862 destroyed the roofs and ceilings, and the building was rebuilt to its earlier appearance. History runs thick here. Isabella of Castile took refuge within these walls before being proclaimed queen in 1474, and Philip II married Anna of Austria in the chapel in 1570. Over the centuries the Alcázar also served as a state prison and as the Royal Artillery College; today it is a museum and houses a military archive, and together with the old town and the Roman aqueduct it forms a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1985. It has also served as a film set, from Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight onward.

Walk down into the valley below the castle, along the Eresma, to see it rise above the trees; the view from the Clamores side, looking up at the tip of the rock, shows how completely the building follows the stone.

Getting there

The Alcázar is in Segovia itself, about 1.3 km from the centre and a walk of some 20–25 minutes from the aqueduct through Plaza Mayor. The nearest major airport is Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas (MAD), about 70 km away. High-speed trains from Madrid Chamartín reach Segovia-Guiomar station in under half an hour; from there local bus 11 runs to Plaza del Azoguejo by the aqueduct in about 15 minutes.