Castle of Santa Catalina (Jaén)

Saint Catherine's Castle (Spanish: Castillo de Santa Catalina) is a castle that sits on the Cerro de Santa Catalina overlooking the Spanish city of Jaén. It is now the site of a parador designed by José Luis Picardo.

The castle began as a Moorish fortress built by the Umayyads in the 8th century, later improved by the Nasrid ruler of the Emirate of Granada, Abdallah ibn al-Ahmar (who also built the Alhambra). Earlier, where the parador now stands, there was a tower known as Hannibal's Tower, of which some traces remain. During this period Jayyan (Jaén) was an important stopping place for caravans headed to Madrid and it is possible that the castle was used to house travelling parties.

After King Ferdinand III of Castile captured the city in 1246 after the Siege of Jaén, he commenced a transformation of the castle, including construction of what became known as the New Castle on the eastern extreme of the hill. The bulk of the work, however, took place under the reigns of Alfonso X and Ferdinand IV.

There are five towers and a donjon, with one of the towers holding the Chapel of Saint Catherine. One of the last structures built during this period was the donjon, which was the work of the Constable of Castile, Miguel Lucas de Iranzo. The builders of the new castle used some of the towers and ramparts of the old fortress, and destroyed or replaced others. The construction in 1965 of the parador resulted in destruction of many of the elements of the Old Castle. The few remnants of the original fortress occupy the western extreme of the hill.

The 17th century saw some interior remodeling of the buildings. Then in the early 19th century, Napoleonic forces built a gunpowder store, stables, hospital, offices, kitchen, and artillery platform. Little beyond the foundations remains of most of these.

On the top of the hill there is a monumental cross that recalls the cross that Ferdinand III had erected there. At the foot of the cross, engraved in the rock, is the "Sonnet to the Cross" by the poet Almendros Aguilar.

The castle and parador have a view over the valley of the Guadalquivir to the ridges of the Sierra Morena. General Charles de Gaulle stayed in the parador while writing his memoirs.

By 1983 it housed an 80-bed hotel. The castle was named for the patron saint of Jaén.

Text adapted from “Castle of Santa Catalina (Jaén)” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Castle of Santa Catalina (Jaén) ranks #3,939 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #161 of the 602 mapped in Spain. Founded c. 750, it is older than 95% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 41 atlas entries founded in the 8th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,843 times in the last 60 days, more than 65% of the atlas. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Jaén, 1 km away. It is one of the 125 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of Andalusia. It is stop 23 of 30 on the Andalusian frontier castles, Cádiz to Córdoba. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.

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