Spain
The Castillo de la Villa de Martos, or Lower Fortress, located in the city of Martos (Jaén), in Spain, is an urban castle which, together with the Castillo de la Peña, forms one of the most important defences the Order of Calatrava possessed against the Kingdom of Granada. Both castles were declared Historical Monuments in 1985.
The castle sits on a rocky hill on which, in the Ibero-Roman period, stood the acropolis of the city of Tucci, turned in the Islamic period into a hisn (fortified castle). Its structure was altered on successive occasions, the most important remodelling taking place in the Christian period, under the Order of Calatrava, with the construction in the alcázar of a great keep, as well as various other towers and walls. Within the enclosure of the fortress stands the Sanctuary of Santa María de la Villa.
This enclosure was joined to the Peña by walls of which some remains survive, and which served to protect the city, which thus lay between the walls, the castle and the Peña.
Machine-translated from “Castillo de la Villa de Martos” on the Spanish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Castillo de la Villa de Martos ranks #8,406 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #505 of the 607 mapped in Spain. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Jaén, 16 km away. It is one of the 124 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Andalusia. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.
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