Castillo de Hornillos de Cerrato

Spain, Spain

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Castillo de Hornillos de Cerrato is a 16th-century fortress ruin overlooking the village of the same name in Palencia province, Spain, built atop an earlier medieval structure from the High Middle Ages repopulation era following Alfonso III's 9th-century Reconquista campaigns.

Constructed of white ashlar masonry in a square layout with round corner towers, it preserves the eastern curtain wall, partial northern sections, large windows, loopholes, and traces of wooden floor beams across three levels, once surrounded by a vanished low defensive wall possibly with a moat.

Owned by noble families like the Enríquez—who rebelled against Juan II and Álvaro de Luna in 1541—Sarmiento counts, Cobos, and the Marquess of San Vicente, it sheltered Juana la Loca's cortege in 1507 en route to Tordesillas; declared a historic-artistic monument in 1949, its romantic ruins freely accessible amid archaeological finds like medieval pottery.