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Only 130 kilometres from Cadiz capital we find Olvera, a village that is said to be a street, a castle and a church, but also... What a street, castle and church! This village is considered the gateway to the Sierra de Grazalema Natural Park and is one of those essential villages on the route of the White villages of the Sierra de Cádiz.
As you get to Olvera, it is majestic to observe the village from a distance, surrounded by olive groves and farmland, forming that extraordinary mound of white houses that huddle on top of each other topped by its spectacular church.
And at another extreme, the village, on a rocky outcrop, where the castle rises, which still preserves the keep, the popular Paseo de Ronda and a spectacular subterranean that will take us to the top of its keep where the views are... what to tell you, spectacular.
And it is that if there is something that can characterize this town is for being a viewpoint in itself. From almost any street of the high part you will enjoy wonderful views that seem to want to sneak from street to street and you will be surprised at every step you take.
The Olvera Castle can be reached via C/ Calzada, this street gives us access to the impressive Archpriestly Church of Ntra. Señora de la Encarnación which is right next to the Castle, the cemetery, the Tourist Office and the Cilla Museum (Museum of Castles and Frontiers of Olvera).
The Olvera Castle was built at the end of the 12th century and formed part of the defensive system of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. Cradled on a rock 623 m above sea level, the highest peak in the town, Olvera Castle has an irregular plan in the manner of an elongated triangle that adapts to the very shape of the rock. Its access door, the only one in the enclosure, is protected by a barbican and shows signs of having received a coat of arms. The fortress also consists of the Torre del Homenaje (Homage Tower), a canvas of wall with a roundabout, an underground enclosure and two algibes, one of which supplied the tower with water.
The Torre del Homenaje (Homage Tower), which stands in the southern part of the enclosure and has two floors covered by a half barrel vault, has a rectangular floor plan and rounded edges and constitutes the main element of the castle's defensive device. It is built in masonry, with irregular stone threads joined with mortar. Access to both floors of the tower is via spiral staircases. The original entrance door is more than five metres from the ground and is accessed by a drum skate from a later period. Part of the castle remains of the fence of walls that surrounded the Barrio de la Villa.
The Olvera Castle, around which the medieval town was formed, has an uncertain origin. It must have been built in the Muslim era or in previous centuries. However, the invoice we know today has evident Christian features in its construction, the product of the successive remodelling that the castle had to undergo since it was taken over by the Castilian troops.
Olvera Castle, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 1985 as a defensive architecture, is located within the limits of the Historic-Artistic Site. The building is also catalogued by the Subsidiary Norms of Municipal Planning definitively approved on May 17, 1999, with integral protection level.
