Castle of Gormaz

The ridge above the Duero at Gormaz had already changed hands more than once before the standing castle rose. Christian chronicles record Muslim forces retaking the site in 925 and 940, evidence that an earlier fortification here passed repeatedly between Umayyad al-Andalus and the Christian kingdoms to the north through the 10th century. In 965–66 Caliph al-Hakam II's general Ghalib ibn Abd al-Rahman rebuilt the fortress on a far larger scale; Arabic chronicles, first recorded by al-Maqqari, and a foundation stone naming the caliph — found in the Hermitage of San Miguel de Gormaz and now kept in Burgo de Osma Cathedral, and believed to come from the fortress — together support this date. It became the largest fortification the Caliphate of Cordoba built along this stretch of frontier and, according to the historian Roger Collins, the largest castle in Europe at the time.

In 974–75 a coalition led by Sancho of Navarre, Garcia of Castile and Ramiro III of León, under the regency of his aunt Elvira Ramírez, laid siege to the fortress. Ghalib broke the siege in the summer of 975 with a relieving army and pursued Garcia's retreating forces into Castile. Chronicles differ on what followed: the castle passed to Christian hands at some point in the next few years, only for Almanzor's forces to retake it in 983. Decades later, during the civil war that broke apart the Caliphate, the Cordoban authorities are recorded promising to hand the fortress to Sancho III in 1009 or 1011, though whether that surrender actually took place is unclear.

Fernando I of León took the castle in 1059, though the same accounts that record his capture also imply the occupation was brief — archaeological evidence shows Muslims still repairing the walls into the 1060s. By the century's end the wider Duero region, together with Toledo to the south, had passed under the definitive control of Castile. Alfonso VI granted Gormaz to Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid, as lord in 1087.

The castle changed hands repeatedly and underwent substantial repair during the 14th-century war between Pedro I of Castile and Pedro IV of Aragon; excavation has shown the central part of the site was occupied by a small urban settlement at this time. After the fighting ended the castle was abandoned and fell into ruin. Its southern wall, built with more finely dressed masonry than the plainer northern wall, had already needed repeated repair in medieval times against erosion and landslip on the ridge.

Modern excavation began in 1922 and has continued since, with major campaigns in the late 20th century led by Juan Zozaya. The site was declared a Monumento Nacional in 1931 and is protected today as a bien de interés cultural. Exterior scenes for the 1961 film El Cid, starring Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren, were shot among its ruins, which stand today as extensive masonry walls and towers on the hill above the village of Gormaz.