Once Upon a Time… The Manzanares el Real Castle

Castles are a type of home that was built to protect the people inside. 

Throughout the ages (and still even today), people have built protection around them:

• Stone Age people lived in caves and made defences to keep out wild animals.

• The first towns and cities had walls to keep out invaders.

• Kings and nobles fortified their large homes to protect themselves.

How many towers has the Manazanares Castle got?

Can you think of places today that have high walls or fences to help keep people out?

Castles were often built on hilltops or surrounded by water to make them easier to defend.

Would you like to know what it was like to live in a castle?

This fortified palace was built over 500 years ago. It is a palace inside a castle that was built by one of the most important families of those times, the Mendoza family.

The village where the castle is located is called Manzanares because in the past there were many fruit trees, what tree do you think the name comes from?

“Manzanares” means “apple orchards”, and the town was given its name because of the apple trees covering the large fertile plain that used to be where the Santillana Reservoir is today.

Marquis of Santillana was a very famous poet in the fifteenth century whose works include serranillas, short love poems about a lost knight wandering through the mountains and a girl who comes to his assistance.

Do you know any other castles in Madrid?

Is there any river near the castle?  What reservoir is it in front of this beautiful castle?

Grajal Bridge over the river Manzanares, Colmenar Viejo.

Madrid Río, the Manzanares River park.

The river Manzanares has its source near the Navacerrada mountain pass in the Guadarrama mountain range.