The Garcimuñoz castle (Castillo de Garcimuñoz) is a fortress located in the Spanish municipality of Castillo de Garcimuñoz, in the province of Cuenca, Castilla-La Mancha. The current castle was built by order of the master don Juan Pacheco, Marquis of Villena, on the ruins of a previous fortress in the second half of the 15th century.
Its current state corresponds to the transitional style between Gothic and Renaissance, showing Italian influences. It is made up of a square body, with strong walls, flanked by thick circular towers and wide platforms.
The entire enclosure of the exterior walls with embrasures has been preserved, but the interior has been destroyed, except for the basement buildings, which were used as a cemetery in the 19th century.
The only decorative motif that is distinguished in this fortress is the cover, which appears on a canvas that moves inside one of the panels, supposedly where the old cover of the Arab fortress was located.
The previous origin is uncertain; According to documents that appear, it must have been before 1177, the year of the reconquest, when a first fortress was built, the origin of the current one.
The remains were discovered in 1974 when cleaning the old cemetery. They are walls of poor material; The water pipes and the cistern of the fortress are still preserved.
In 2003, the Ministry of Public Works held a competition for ideas to restore the fortress, which was won by the architect Izaskun Chinchilla.
In April 2008, the restoration works began, which were later suspended when the company that made them went bankrupt.
GPS coordinates: 39°39′35″N 2°22′46″W
How to get to?
From Cuenca 51 min (65.7 km) via N-420
From Albacete 1 hr 3 min (98.1 km) via A-31
From Toledo 1 hr 46 min (175 km) via A-40 and A-3
From Madrid 1 hr 39 min (158 km) via A-3
