On our way through Castile, we came across the name Calatrava. Beside of many villages with that name in it, there are two castles of the Calatrava Order: Calatrava la Nueva and Calatrava Vieja further north.
The Order of Calatrava was one of the four Spanish military orders. It was founded in Castile in the 12th century, as a military branch of the Cistercian family. In 1217, the Order of Calatrava moved to Calatrava la Nueva, which we visited first. It is located at the top of a hill with great views in all directions.
The fortress is large with 46,000 square metres and was built by the Knights of Calatrava between 1213 and 1217, after the famous Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa, using many of the prisoners taken in that battle as labourers. Once erected, it became the headquarters of the Order of Calatrava and one of the most important fortresses in Castile.
The church was built in Cistercian style with tower-like buttresses and a large rose window on its façade, dating from the time of the Catholic Monarchs.
The castle survived until the 19th century, when it was abandoned following the religious confiscations to balance the state accounts in 1835.
Most of the political and military power of the order had dissipated by the end of the 15th century, but the last dissolution of the order’s property did not occur until 1838.
We now wanted to visit also the Castle of Calatrava Vieja, the original seat where the order was founded. We did a quick service stop in Ciudad Real and soon reached the remains of the castle next to the Guadiana river.
Its name is derived from the Arabic Qalʿat Rabāḥ or Fortress of Rabah, a reference to the Arab nobleman who held this area in the 8th century, although as a fortress it may date even earlier to Iberian times.
During the High Middle Ages, Calatrava was the most important city of the Arab Emirate of Córdoba in the Guadiana River valley, the largest city between Córdoba and Toledo, and an important Islamic outpost against Christian Spain. Until 1147, Calatrava developed into the capital of a large region.
After the conquest of Toledo by King Alfonso VI in 1085, Calatrava became the most exposed Muslim outpost against the Christian territories in the centre and north of the Iberian Peninsula.
Stop reading if you are not so keen about a bit of history 😉
King Alfonso VII conquered the city of Calatrava in 1147 and used it as an important strategic outpost on the border with the Islamic south of Spain. To secure this position, he transferred the city and fortress of Calatrava to the Knights Templar in 1150. This was one of the first possessions of the Templars in Spain, but due to their intense involvement in Palestine and the massive military pressure from their Islamic neighbours, they were unable to take responsibility for this strategic fortress.
King Sancho III of Castile and León therefore convened a meeting of his nobles and offered the town and fortress to anyone who was willing to take on its defence. The only person who agreed to defend this strategic Christian outpost was a monk: Raimundo Serrat, the abbot of the Cistercian monastery of Fitero. King Sancho was disappointed but forced to honour his offer and, with a deed of donation, transferred the town and fortress of Calatrava to him in 1158. Unintentionally, King Sancho had thus laid the foundation for the creation of the first great Spanish order of knights, the Order of Calatrava. This was founded by Raimundo Serrat as the military arm of the Cistercian Order by arming the lay brothers.
Raimundo succeeded in recruiting a significant number of fighters in a short period of time, thereby holding the fortress against the Saracens.
In 1195 Calatrava was lost to the Almohads and could not be recaptured until 1212. Due to the threat to Spain from the powerful Almohad Empire, Pope Innocent III organised a crusade with King Alfonso VIII of Castile, which ended on 16 July 1212 with a decisive victory for the Christians against the army of Muhammad an-Nasir, the fourth caliph of the Almohads, at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. Troops from Germany and Austria also set out from southern France to Spain to take part in this crusade. Among them was Leopold VI, the glorious Duke of Austria and Styria, whose troops of Austrian and Styrian knights arrived too late at Las Navas de Tolosa to be able to intervene in the battle. This decisive victory allowed the border of Castile to be pushed far to the south, and Calatrava was again in the hands of the Order of Calatrava. As the border was now further south, the Order moved to Calatrava Nueva and the old castle was soon abandoned.
What remains of Calatrava Vieja is an impressive landscape of ruins covering five hectares, including the remains of the Medina and the fortress (Alcázar). It has a total of 44 towers and is surrounded by a moat from the Arab era that was connected to the Guadiana River. With a sophisticated system of water channels and wheels, water was transported into the Medina and Alcázar.
Today, Calatrava la Vieja is an important archaeological site for Islamic culture in Spain, where remains from the time of the Knights Templar and the Order of Calatrava are also preserved. If you understand enough Spanish, we would recommend taking a guided tour.
There is a recreational area next to the castle, which provided good shade, which we used for 2 days to relax and enjoy the view (and get some work done). We also had the most impressive sunsets behind the castle from our parking spot.
As we are close to the Tablas de Daimiel – we will get a day of bird watching next!