Castillo del Cid de Jadraque

Jadraque, Spain, Spain

---

Castillo del Cid de Jadraque, perched on a hill overlooking the Henares River plain in Jadraque, Guadalajara province, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain, is a late 15th-century residential palace-fortress built by the powerful Mendoza family.

Originally a Moorish stronghold from the 8th-10th centuries and conquered by Alfonso VI in 1085, it was acquired by Cardinal Mendoza in 1469 and rebuilt by his son Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar y Mendoza—the first Count of Cid—to evoke the legendary Cid Campeador, featuring ashlar stone walls 240 meters around, four round towers designed against artillery, and Italian-influenced robust Castilian architecture without a central keep.

 Abandoned after Rodrigo's death, it served militarily in the Wars of Spanish Succession and Peninsular War, passing to the Infantado Dukes before becoming municipal property as a symbol of noble prestige.