MADRID CASTLES TOUR

We will take you to see two very special castles: Segovia’s Alcazar and the Castle of Coca

The Alcazar of Segovia

Madrid Experience will take you on a bespoke VIP Tour of one of the most dreamlike castles in the world: the Alcazar of Segovia. Building of this impressive fortress was begun in the twelfth century – although it is believed that there was a Roman fortification there previously – and in time it would become one of the favourite residences of the Castilian Monarchs. It was turned from a fortress into a palace, and was sumptuously decorated over the centuries.

The Alcazar’s past will forever be tied to Isabella of Castile, who left the castle walls to be proclaimed Queen of Castile in Segovia’s Plaza Mayor the 13th of December, 1474.

Her great-grandson, King Phillip II, in whose empire the sun never set, would celebrate his marriage to his fourth wife, Anna of Habsburg, in the Alcazar. It was he who reformed the Royal Residence, adding a formal ‘Herrerian’ courtyard, and covering its pointed spires in slate, giving the castle a markedly central European look, very different from most of Castile’s buildings at the time.

Castle of Coca

In 1453, King Juan II of Castile gave the permission to the Archbishop of Seville, Don Alfonso de Fonseca, to build this historical fortress, which would be finished in 1493.

Madrid Experience offers a bespoke VIP Tour of one of the most beautiful examples of the Spanish Gothic-Mudejar style: the Castle of Coca.

This magnificent castle-palace, a good example of Spain’s aristocratic architecture in the Middle Ages, was declared a National Monument in 1926 and it is one of the few Spanish fortresses not constructed on a hill, being built instead over an escarpment of land.

Its original look amazes and astonishes those who see it for the first time since its ornamental brickwork expresses an original and imaginative architectural ensemble unlike any other.

As with many medieval castles, this one has a love story to tell, that of the Marquis of Cenete, who was the son of the famous Grand Cardinal Mendoza. During his courtship of one of the daughters of the Fonseca family he was scalded by embers thrown over the castle’s battlements. The Castle of Coca would eventually pass from the Mendoza family to the house of Alba, one of Spain’s noblest families, who in turn would donate it to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture in 1954. Since then it has housed a Forestry School.

Our VIP Tour will envelop you in the history of an aristocratic estate whose history not only involves one of Spain’s most important noble families, but even Queen Isabella of Castile.

Madrid Experience proposes a bespoke VIP Tour of both residences where you will be able to taste the rich gastronomical heritage of the region.