Castillo de Mata Bejid

Spain, Spain

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Castillo de Mata Bejid is a small rectangular fortress of Muslim origin near Cambil in Jaén province, Spain, initially built as an Almohad-Nasrid walled enclosure with a single tower and cistern between the 12th and 13th centuries. Rebuilt by Christians in the 14th century on the same site for better defense along the volatile Castilian-Nasrid frontier, it features two towers—one northern with a vaulted room and southern reinforced with masonry over earlier rammed-earth walls—and changed hands repeatedly through conquests in 1316, 1368, and 1438 until the Reyes Católicos granted it to Jaén in 1494. Now in ruins amid a former farmhouse site, it reflects Sierra Mágina's turbulent Reconquista history with layered Islamic and Christian construction techniques.