It is accessed on foot by a path that starts at the church of San Miguel. It is located on the escarpment overlooking the urban center.
The castle of Castellote is a large fortress (about 130 meters of maximum axis by 50 meters wide) with an irregular floor plan and four enclosures arranged in steps, due to the unevenness of the terrain on which it sits. Access was by means of a drawbridge. Remains of four towers remain. Among them is the “tribute”, of large dimensions, located at one end of the enclosure.
There is no news of the castle prior to 1168, the year in which it was definitively conquered by Alfonso II. However, the town is already called Castellot in ecclesiastical documents of 1148 and 1158, which suggests that the castle already existed at that time.
In October 1188, the lord of the castle of Castellote was the nobleman Gascón de Castellot, who had recently joined the Order of the Holy Redeemer. Eight years later, he allowed Alfonso II of Aragon to donate the fortress to the Order of the Temple.
Order of the Temple
. After the dissolution of the Templars, in 1317 the Sanjuanistas arrived and made Castellote the head of one of its three bailiwicks.
three bailiwicks
together with Aliaga and
Cantavieja
in what we know today as Maestrazgo. They remained in the town until 1769.
The first Carlist war returned the war activity to the old fortress. The pretender Don Carlos, after visiting it in 1837, ordered General Cabrera to modernize it. In 1840 it was occupied by General Espartero after several days of artillery attacks, which ended with the castle practically in ruins. The remains that were left standing were later blown up by the Duke of Valencia.
