Peñafiel Castle

A fortress stood on the long, narrow ridge above Peñafiel — some 200 metres from end to end and only about 35 metres across — from at least the 10th century. It appears in the documentary record in 943, shortly after the battle of Simancas of 939, in the reign of Ramiro II of León; Fernán González is credited with beginning work on the site in 947, as a frontier outpost against the Arabs. In 983 Almanzor seized it.

The Castilian count Sancho García took it back in 1013, and the change from the older name Peña Falcón to Peñafiel — Penna Fidele in Latin — appears to be owed to him: taking the place from the Arabs, he is said to have declared that from that day forward this would be the most faithful rock of Castile.

Álvar Fáñez of Burgos, cousin of Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar and himself celebrated in the Cantar de mio Cid, had held the fortress as alcaide. The marital quarrels of Urraca I of León and Alfonso I the Battler left Alfonso besieged in the castle of Peñafiel in 1112 by his wife's troops, and on another occasion by those of his father-in-law Alfonso VI.

Fernando III the Saint instituted the lordship of Peñafiel for his son Alfonso X, who transferred it to his nephew — the saint king's grandson — the infante Juan Manuel. It was Juan Manuel who saw to the rebuilding of the castle and its walled enclosure in the first half of the 14th century. Under Pedro I of Castile the lordship was suppressed and its property passed to the crown.

From Juan I the castle passed to Fernando de Antequera, and from him to his son Juan II of Aragon. Juan lived at Peñafiel for a time while still an infante, and his first son Charles, Prince of Viana, was born in the keep there in 1421. From the same castle Juan mounted a revolt against Juan II of Castile, who took it in 1451 and ordered it demolished.

The castle on the ridge today is a 15th-century building. In 1456 Juan II of Castile granted Pedro Téllez Girón, Master of the Order of Calatrava, rights over the remains of the fortress and charged him with rebuilding it; the work followed the pattern known as the Valladolid school. Girón's arms are carried on the keep, a rectangular tower some 34 metres high holding three vaulted storeys. After his death a wall and an inner moat were added, and the wall-walks and the north tower were remodelled for artillery. The plain outer curtain may date from the 11th century and be the oldest part of the whole construction.

The 16th century brought only light work, on the doorway among other things, together with two inventories of the arms still kept in the castle. The last of those inventories describes the building as ruinous in the middle of the 17th century.

During the Peninsular War of 1808 to 1814 the castle housed French troops. It was declared a national monument in 1917, and holds the status of bien de interés cultural in the category of monument. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936 to 1939 it was used as a prison by the rebel side, held anti-aircraft batteries, and served as a communications post and a station for controlling air movements.

The town council of Peñafiel took ownership of the building in 1957, and restoration work was carried out between 1966 and 1973; a plan of the 1960s to turn the castle into a seat of the Falange's Sección Femenina came to nothing. In 1999 the council ceded it to the Diputación de Valladolid for fifty years and the Provincial Wine Museum was inaugurated, drawing 86,553 visitors in 2017; it occupies the south wing. Work on the perimeter wall-walk and the north courtyard was completed in 2024.