Calatañazor

The name Calatañazor almost certainly derives from Arabic, meaning something close to "Castle of the Eagles" or "Castle of the Watchtower." But the settlement itself is far older than the Arabic name. Archaeological evidence places the ancient Arevaci city of Voluce about a kilometre away, on a hill beside the river Milanos at a site called Los Castejones, occupied from before the Roman period until the early centuries AD. When Germanic invasions disrupted the old order, the population moved to the more defensible promontory where the town stands today. Rock-cut tombs at the base of the castle may date from the Visigothic period.

The event that gave Calatañazor its greatest historical fame happened in the summer of 1002. Al-Mansur — Almanzor — the military strongman who had effectively run Al-Andalus for two decades and raided Christian territory every summer from Santiago to Barcelona, was returning south, victorious but seriously ill. Near Calatañazor, according to tradition, the Count of Castile Sancho García engaged him in battle. The old saying runs: "at Calatañazor, Almanzor lost his drum" — meaning he lost his aura of invincibility. What is certain is that Almanzor died on the night of 10–11 August 1002 and was buried at Medinaceli. The plain below the castle is still called the Valle de la Sangre — the Valley of Blood.

Calatañazor was declared a protected historic-artistic ensemble in 1962, and the fabric of the village justifies it. A single steep street runs up to the main square, which holds a late-medieval stone pillory at its centre and is flanked by the castle and the town hall. The houses are built of mud-and-straw tapia or rough stone, framed with irregular juniper timbers, and topped with the distinctive conical chimneys of the Pinares region. A solid wall with towers and curtain sections rings most of the perimeter.

The castle ruins visible today date broadly from the 13th or 14th century, though some stonework in the keep points to an earlier, Arabic-period origin. The keep is the only part to have received any restoration; look for the Gothic window in one of its walls and the dressed stone at its corners. The ditch that once isolated it from the town is still visible.

The parish church of Nuestra Señora del Castillo is Romanesque in origin. Most of the early fabric is gone, but the west wall survives, with its moulded oculus and a doorway notable for the rectangular alfiz frame — a feature borrowed from Islamic architecture, reflecting the Muslim community that once lived here. Inside are a Romanesque baptismal font, a small museum holding original royal privilege documents confirmed by Enrique IV in 1456, the Catholic Monarchs in 1477, and Charles V in 1530, and a baroque altarpiece containing a figure known as the Cristo de Calatañazor. Outside the walls, the Ermita de la Soledad retains an intact Romanesque apse and a north doorway with decorated archivolt.

Calatañazor is reached via road SO-P-50P26, which branches off the national road N-122. The village streets are narrow, so leave your car at the entrance and continue on foot.