Castle of Ampudia (Palencia)

Eastern view of the castle

Ampudia Castle is a medieval fortress built between 1461 and 1488 by García López de Ayala, Lord of Ayala and Salvatierra and son of Pedro García de Herrera, the first holder of the Ampudia estate. García's successor, Pedro Ayala y Rojas, embraced the comunero cause, leading to the armed conflict known as the Battle of Ampudia between supporters of Emperor Charles I of Spain and troops led by Bishop Antonio de Acuña. In 1528, the castle housed the sons of the French monarch Francis I as hostages after the Battle of Pavia. It is an early example of a Castilian stately castle-palace, a jewel of the region's civil architecture, and is in magnificent condition following the careful restoration undertaken in the 1960s by Eugenio Fontaneda. The building has a trapezoidal floor plan, turrets at the corners, the southwest one corresponding to the homage tower, and a moat spanned by a drawbridge. It is surrounded by a barbican wall with cylindrical towers. The parade ground has three porticoed galleries, each three stories high, with segmental arcades, the upper story being more modest.

Staircase leading to the bridge at the entrance to the castle

Upper platform of the stone bridge

Barbican towers that protected the entrance to the castle

Detail of the castle's drawbridge hatch

Detail of the battlements with their loopholes indoor the outer wall

Space between the outer wall and the body of the castle

Eastern canvas of the main east facade of the castle

Machicolation over two sentry boxes that defended the main gate of the castle

Heraldic shield of the Duke of Lerma above the main door

Entrance gate to the castle

Access door to the parade ground from the castle's entrance hallway

Parade ground of the castle

Detail of the corbels that supported the battlements and the patrol path

North-east view of the homage tower from the parade ground of the castle

Access door to the homage tower at a corner of the parade ground

Heraldic coat of arms of the Marquisate of Aguilar de Campoo in the parade ground

Stone cannonballs on one side of the parade ground

Lower porticoed gallery of the parade ground

Access door to the indoor rooms of the castle

Original kitchen of the castle servants

Dining room located at the other end of the kitchen

Access gate to the Roman and pre-Roman archaeological area of the castle

Medieval pharmacy in one of the castle's indoor rooms

Private chapel indoor the castle

Details of the segmental arches in the porticoed galleries of the

castle's parade ground

Access door to the hallway before the parade ground

View of the eastern facade of the castle

Eastern canvas of the east outer wall

Eastern tower of the eastern canvas of the east outer wall

Detail of an embrasure at the top of one of the castle towers

Battlements on the eastern canvas of the east outer wall of the castle

Central tower of the eastern canvas of the castle's east outer wall

Western tower of the eastern canvas of the castle's east outer wall

Northeast keep of the castle

Terrace of the homage tower of castle

Detail of the eye of the stone bridge at the entrance to the castle

Western canvas of the east outer wall

Eastern tower of the western canvas of the east outer wall

Central tower of the western canvas of the east outer wall