Castillo de Villel de Mesa

Villel de Mesa, Spain, Spain

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Castillo de Villel de Mesa, also known as Castillo de los Funes, stands on a rocky crag in Villel de Mesa, Guadalajara province, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, originating as a 12th-century fortress built by Manrique de Lara after the Reconquista to watch over the Mesa River valley.

Seized in 1299 by the Navarrese Funes family amid Castile-Aragón border strife, its simple rectangular enclosure features two unequal towers—a trapezoidal Noon Tower from the late 12th century and a Gothic-reinforced main keep expanded post-1304 to 13 meters with Aragonese-style mullioned windows—linked by thick tapial walls, battlements, a postern, and cistern.

Damaged in later wars and abandoned by 1844, recent rehabilitation preserves its auxiliary role to nearby Mesa fortress as a stark ruin in the Parameras Ibéricas.