Spain · 11th century
The Castillo de Portilla and the old town of Portilla (in Basque: Zabalateko gaztelua), in the municipality of Zambrana (Álava), was a territorial centre of the Kingdom of Pamplona that came into being in the 11th century. It was the scene of numerous Navarrese-Castilian clashes, until in the year 1200 it was handed over to Castile. Later, in 1288, it was the scene of a great siege by Sancho IV in the Castilian civil war that set him against his nephew Alfonso de la Cerda. Abandoned for centuries, a project for the integral recovery of the site, awarded the Hispania Nostra Prize 2016, makes it possible to visit this spectacular place. The rock castle, the old town, its church and walls constitute a landscape of enormous beauty that explains its status as a fortified town in a completely natural setting.
Machine-translated from “Castillo de Portilla” on the Spanish Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Castillo de Portilla ranks #8,060 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #449 of the 607 mapped in Spain. Founded c. 1050, it is older than 89% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 436 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Vitoria-Gasteiz, 24 km away. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.
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