Castles and Palaces in Spain

The Alhambra is the second most visited monument in Spain, after the Sagrada Família, and the finest Islamic palace in Europe. The Nasrid sultans built it on the red hill above Granada in the 13th and 14th centuries, and its rooms are carved from floor to ceiling with stucco, tile and poetry in Arabic script. The heart is the Nasrid Palaces: the Court of the Myrtles with its long pool, the Hall of the Ambassadors and the Court of the Lions with its fountain of twelve stone lions.

The general ticket, about 21 euros, includes the palaces, the Alcazaba fortress (closed after the August 2026 earthquakes; check whether it has reopened), whose watchtower has the best view of the city, and the Generalife, the sultans’ summer gardens on the next hill. The Nasrid Palaces have a strict half-hour entry slot printed on your ticket; if you miss it you do not get in. The Renaissance Palace of Charles V, a perfect circle inside a square, is free to enter and holds the Alhambra Museum.

Book only through the official Alhambra ticket site, as early as you can: in spring and summer tickets go weeks in advance, and the ID you book with is checked at the door. Night visits to the palaces are a good alternative when the day tickets are gone. Allow at least four hours, and finish at the Mirador de San Nicolás in the Albaicín for the sunset view of the walls.

The Royal Alcázar of Seville is often called the oldest royal palace in Europe still in use; the royal family stays in the upper rooms when in Seville. Most of what you see is the Mudéjar palace that Pedro I built in the 1360s with craftsmen from Granada, so it rivals the Alhambra for tilework and carved ceilings. The Courtyard of the Maidens, the vaulted Baths of María de Padilla and the gardens, used as Dorne in Game of Thrones, are the highlights. Tickets are about 15 euros, and the upper royal rooms need a separate guided-tour ticket. Book a timed slot online and allow two to three hours.

Seville also has two palaces of the nobility worth a look: Casa de Pilatos, with its tiled patios mixing Renaissance and Mudéjar styles, and the Palacio de las Dueñas, home of the Dukes of Alba. The Palacio de Lebrija has its floors paved with Roman mosaics brought from Itálica.

In Córdoba, the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos is where Ferdinand and Isabella received Columbus; its terraced gardens of pools and orange trees are the reason to go. Twenty-five kilometres west, the Castle of Almodóvar del Río towers over the Guadalquivir valley and played Highgarden in Game of Thrones.

The Alcazaba of Málaga climbs the hill above the city centre in layers of walls, gates and small courtyard palaces, right beside the Roman theatre. A path, or a bus, continues up to the Castle of Gibralfaro, whose walls give the best view over the port and bullring of Málaga. A combined ticket covers both. In Almería, the Alcazaba is one of the largest Moorish fortresses in Spain, founded in the 10th century, with long walls snaking along a ridge.

The Aljafería in Zaragoza is the other great Moorish palace, built in the 11th century for the city’s own Muslim kings. Its interlaced arches are a sight on their own, and the building now also houses the parliament of Aragon. Further inland, the 10th-century Castle of Gormaz in Soria province is a caliphal fortress whose walls stretch for nearly a kilometre along a ridge; it is free and almost always empty.

The Royal Palace of Madrid was built in the 18th century on the site of the Royal Alcázar, which burned in 1734. It is the official residence of the king, though he lives at the Zarzuela Palace, and is used for state ceremonies. The tour takes in the throne room, the Royal Armoury and a quartet of instruments made by Stradivarius. Tickets are timed and sold online. On the first Wednesday of most months a ceremonial changing of the guard fills the square in front at noon.

The royal seats around Madrid make easy day trips. El Escorial is Philip II’s vast granite monastery-palace, finished in 1584, with a library of painted vaults and the marble Pantheon of the Kings, where most Spanish monarchs since Charles V are buried. It is about an hour from Madrid by Cercanías train line C-8 or by bus from Moncloa. Aranjuez, 45 minutes south by train, is a riverside palace set in the gardens of the Aranjuez cultural landscape. In Madrid itself, the Liria Palace of the Dukes of Alba opened in 2019 for guided tours of its Goyas and Titians.

The Alcázar of Segovia rises like a ship’s prow on a rock where two rivers meet, with slate-roofed turrets that are often said to have inspired Disney’s Sleeping Beauty castle. Most of what you see was restored after a fire in 1862, but the rooms of the Catholic Monarchs, the hall of kings with its frieze of monarchs and the armour collection are worth the ticket. Climb the 152 steps of the Tower of Juan II for the view over Segovia and the plain. The full ticket is about 10 euros.

Outside Segovia, the Bourbons built La Granja as a little Versailles in the mountains, with formal gardens and mythological fountains that are switched on only on certain days in spring and summer. The quieter Riofrío palace sits in a deer park nearby.

The castles of Castile’s open plains are the classic Spanish castle. Coca, 50 kilometres north-west of Segovia, is a 15th-century fortress built entirely of brick by Moorish craftsmen in the Mudéjar style, with a deep dry moat and patterned turrets; guided tours run several times a day. La Mota in Medina del Campo is another brick giant, where Queen Isabella spent long periods. Peñafiel stretches along a ridge like a stone ship above the Ribera del Duero vineyards and holds the provincial wine museum, so pair it with a winery visit.

In León province, the Templar Castle of Ponferrada guards the Camino de Santiago with walls, towers and a museum of medieval books. In Ávila the whole old town is a fortress, its medieval walls walkable for long stretches.

Belmonte, in Cuenca province, is a 15th-century castle on a star-shaped plan, with Mudéjar ceilings inside and a ring of walls running down to the village. North of Madrid, the castle of Manzanares el Real is the best preserved in the Madrid region, built by the Mendoza family in the 15th century beside a reservoir under the Sierra de Guadarrama; buses run from Madrid’s Plaza de Castilla. In Toledo, the square Alcázar dominating the skyline now holds the Army Museum, and San Servando guards the bridge across the Tagus. The ruins of Calatrava la Vieja and the hilltop Calatrava la Nueva near Almagro were the seats of a crusading order of knights.

Loarre, 35 kilometres from Huesca, is the best-preserved Romanesque castle in Europe, built in the 11th century on a cliff above the Ebro plain, with a church inside its walls; Ridley Scott filmed Kingdom of Heaven here. The Palace of the Kings of Navarre in Olite, 40 kilometres south of Pamplona, is a 15th-century palace of towers, battlements and roof gardens that you can climb through; part of it is a parador. Nearby, the Castle of Xavier was the birthplace of St Francis Xavier.

In Catalonia, Cardona crowns a hill above a mountain of salt, its parador rooms set around a Romanesque church. In Barcelona, Montjuïc Castle is an 18th-century fortress reached by cable car with views over the port.

Peñíscola Castle was built by the Templars on a rocky peninsula between Valencia and Barcelona and later became the refuge of the antipope Benedict XIII, Papa Luna. The old town of Peñíscola climbs the rock beneath it, and the town played Meereen in Game of Thrones. South of Valencia, Xàtiva Castle stretches along a ridge above the birthplace of the two Borgia popes, an hour from Valencia by train.

In Palma on Mallorca, Bellver Castle is one of the few round castles in Europe, built in the 14th century on a pine-covered hill with views over the bay. In the city centre, the Almudaina Palace, a Moorish fortress turned royal palace, stands opposite the cathedral.

Book the big three online before you travel: the Alhambra, the Royal Alcázar of Seville and the Royal Palace of Madrid all use timed tickets and sell out at Easter and in summer. The royal palaces, El Escorial, Aranjuez, La Granja, Riofrío and the Almudaina are run by Patrimonio Nacional, which offers free entry for EU citizens and residents at set late-afternoon hours on some weekdays; check its website for the current slots, as they change. Many castles close on Mondays, and smaller ones run only guided tours at fixed times.

The royal seats around Madrid are all reachable by Cercanías train or bus, but the castles of Castile, Loarre and Gormaz are much easier with a car; our getting around guide covers car hire. To sleep in a castle, book a parador: Sigüenza, Cardona, Alarcón, Hondarribia and Jaén’s Santa Catalina all occupy fortresses, and the Parador de Granada is inside the Alhambra grounds. For the Roman and prehistoric side of Spain, see our historic sites guide, and for planning a route, the itineraries.

Bring the photo ID you booked with: names are checked at the Alhambra and at Patrimonio Nacional palaces. Large bags and backpacks have to go in the cloakroom, and photography is restricted in some royal palace interiors, so check the signs. Castle towers mean narrow, steep spiral stairs, and most are not accessible for wheelchairs; the main floors of the royal palaces usually are. In summer, inland castles are hot and exposed, so visit early or late in the day.