Pioz Castle

Pioz Castle lies in a quiet village of the same name in the south of the province of Guadalajara in Spain.

The construction of Pioz Castle was started in 1468 by the Cardinal of Spain, Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza who wanted to shape this castle like the castle-palaces he had seen in Italy; a luxurious but also safe house. In 1469 however he changed his mind, stopped the building activities and turned his focus to Jadraque and Maqueda, places of greater strategic importance for his objectives, and already equipped with existing castles in which he was better able to develop his constructive ideas.

As part of an exchange made between the bishop of Siguenza and a Castilian nobleman; Alvar Gómez from Ciudad Real, secretary of king Enrique IV, Pioz Castle came into the hands of the Gomez family from Ciudad Real. They continued the construction of the castle, completing it to its present form in the end of the 15th century. Later when they didn't use the castle for habitation anymore, the castle deteriorated to its present state despite installing a caretaker.

The castle is circled by a dry moat and a heavy outer wall with a well defended gate. The outer wall (which closely follows the outline of the square shaped castle) has an escarpment, 3 corner towers and 1 tower projecting out of the east wall. The castle itself has 3 corner towers and a great, somewhat D-shaped keep at its northwestern corner.

The castle however was closed when I visited. Too bad. It seems the castle was closed for visitors, both to protect the castle and the visitors. The castle seems to be slowly crumbling away, next to the village marketplace.

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