Vélez-Blanco Castle

Vélez-Blanco, Spain, Spain

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Vélez-Blanco Castle is a stunning early 16th-century Renaissance fortress-palace perched on a rocky hilltop overlooking the whitewashed town of Vélez-Blanco in Almería province, Andalusia, Spain. Commissioned between 1506 and 1515 by Pedro Fajardo y Chacón, the first Marquis of Los Vélez, on the ruins of an ancient Moorish alcazaba, it blends Gothic military exteriors with elegant Italian-influenced Renaissance interiors, including a now-famous courtyard patio relocated to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art. Its hexagonal layout features robust walls, multiple towers topped with paired battlements—highlighted by the towering 20-meter Torre del Homenaje—and refined salons symbolizing noble power in a post-Reconquista era, restored in stages during the late 20th century and now a protected cultural landmark.