Palazuelos

Human presence around Palazuelos reaches back to prehistory — cave sites at nearby Ures are among the traces left by early settlers in this part of Guadalajara. The area was home to the Arevaci people before Roman times, and later passed through Visigothic and Moorish periods, though each left little physical mark on the village itself.

The town's properly documented history begins in the Middle Ages, when it formed part of the territorial jurisdiction of Atienza. That changed when Alfonso X — Alfonso the Wise — removed Palazuelos from royal ownership and gave it to his mistress, Mayor Guillén de Guzmán. She passed it to her daughter Beatriz, later Queen of Portugal, who left it to her own daughter Blanca. Blanca sold it to the Infante Don Pedro, and from him it passed by sale to the Bishop of Sigüenza, bringing Palazuelos into the Episcopal Lordship of Sigüenza.

In the second half of the fourteenth century the town was sold to the House of Mendoza, appearing in 1380 among the entailed estate founded by Pedro González de Mendoza for his son Diego Hurtado. By 1404 it had passed to Diego's daughter Aldonza de Mendoza. Around the mid-fifteenth century, Íñigo López de Mendoza — Aldonza's half-brother — began building the castle and walls. His son Pedro Hurtado de Mendoza completed the work; the coats of arms of Pedro and his wife Juana de Valencia can still be seen above two of the town gates. Palazuelos remained tied to the Mendoza line — specifically to the branch of the Duke of Infantado — as confirmed by the Ensenada cadastre of 1752.

In more recent times, the return of emigrants and the improved status of agricultural work following Spain's entry into the European Union brought a partial revival. Even so, younger residents continue to gravitate toward larger centres, particularly Sigüenza, the municipal capital, which holds the essential services — schools, healthcare, public housing, employment — leaving the long-term future of the village uncertain. The historic core is formally protected as a conjunto histórico under a 2002 decree of the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha.

Palazuelos is considered one of the most significant monumental sites in Guadalajara province, and its fortifications are the reason. The walls encircle the entire village in a circuit of just over a kilometre, built from strong mortar and cut stone blocks. At intervals, rounded towers and turrets are set into the wall, with arrow slits at their base; only two of these towers still carry the decorative mouldings that once crowned them. Three of the four gateways into the village are double-gate structures reinforced by flanking towers — and unusually, the inner gates close from inside the projecting gatehouse, meaning the walls could serve both to keep attackers out and, if necessary, to keep the population in. Much of the village housing is built directly against the inner face of the walls, though the outer circuit can be walked almost in its entirety. The walls are classified as private property, legally separate from the houses that lean against them, which complicates their upkeep. Deterioration has been progressing in recent years.

The castle was commissioned by the Marquis of Santillana and is closely comparable in style to the castle of Manzanares el Real — the work is attributed to Juan Guas, who built that castle and others for the Mendoza family. It sits in the northeast section of the wall, surrounded by a low barbican entered from the village through a gateway that once had a drawbridge. Inside, a wall-walk runs between corner towers, and a large keep is set against the western wall. The castle is private property; the keep has been converted into a private residence and restoration work is ongoing. It is not open to visitors. Both castle and walls were declared a national Historic-Artistic Monument in 1951, and received further protection as a bien de interés cultural in 2002.

The parish church of San Juan Bautista is a straightforward building with a triangular bell gable and a Romanesque semicircular doorway sheltered by a small porch. Inside, the main altarpiece is a baroque work by the Sigüenza master Juan de Sancho (1670–1726), paid for by Lucas del Olmo y Monje. The ceiling is a wooden artesonado with geometric patterns that suggest a possible Mudéjar influence. Restoration work on the church has been underway, with the roof and ceiling completed in a first phase in 2007. Beside it stands the former priest's house, now unoccupied since the parish priest lives in Sigüenza; it retains a carved coat of arms showing the lily-vase emblem of the Sigüenza bishopric and a carved wooden balcony. Just outside the walls, about 200 metres from the village, stands the Ermita-humilladero de la Virgen de la Soledad. The village also sits on several regional routes, including the Romanesque Route of the Marca Media, the Camino de Don Quijote (tenth stage), and the Castles Route.