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It is located in the municipality of San Martín de Montalbán, south of the province of Toledo, rising on a 100-meter-deep escarpment cut by the Torcón River, which served as a moat on three sides.
This grandiose fortress is reached on the CM-4009 road from San Martín de Montalbán towards La Puebla de Montalbán, and about 5 kilometers from the first town there is a junction that leads to the castle on the left, and to the sanctuary on the right. visigótico of Santa María de Melque
This impressive building, one of the oldest and most impressive fortresses located on the left bank of the Tagus River, should be built as a point of defense on the left bank of the Tagus River, forming part of a line of defenses, reforming and greatly expanding the Arab castle that existed there that might have been abandoned when surrendering Toledo
Later, the fortress belonged to the Military Order of Santa María de Valdelmec, being donated by Alfonso VIII, in 1197, the Order of the Guardians of the Temple of Jerusalem, better known as Knights Templar. In the period, the Castillo de Montalbán became the head of one of the twenty-seven encomiendas that the Templars owned in Spain and to which large tracts of land and other fortifications belonged. It was, then, a fortress from which a broad territory was defended and a large population was administered and governed. When the Order of the Templars was suppressed in Castile, at the beginning of the 14th century, the castle was conceived as a Jurisdictional Lordship to Don Alfonso Fernández Coronel, to whom much of the current work is owed. The lordship passed into the hands of Don Álvaro de Luna and, later, to the Téllez de Girón, Counts of Montalbán. This superb fortress that rises on an impressive gorge created by the Torcón River, still looks, lush, its adarve and the magnificent Albarrana Towers of pentagonal plant. You can still admire a lot of loopholes and machicolations, a magnificent keep and other dependencies and walled enclosures. It is, without a doubt, the Castillo de Montalbán, the strongest and most complex fortress
The castle is the most robust, extensive and strong of all the castles of the province of Toledo, probably even more than that of Escalona, although its history is much darker and quieter. There is no news that he was attacked in a real battle
In its interior there are remains of the previous Muslim fortress, which was quadrangular and much smaller, and was abandoned with the fall of Toledo
The castle occupies a very strong place, cut to the north and northwest by the deep pit of the river Torcón, 100 meters deep, and with two torrents to the east and west that defend it perfectly on the other two sides. There is thus a space of more than 15,000 m2 bordered by crenellated walls, with quadrangular towers provided with sentry boxes in some of its angles
The south façade faces a level land, so this is where all the possible defenses were concentrated. In the first place there was a wide moat that joined the torrenteras, and then a low semicircular tower, crenellated and with loopholes, which served as a coracha. This extends the outer barbican, which also has battlements and loopholes in limestone. From this and through three doors, and a postern, you reach the spacious walkway that surrounds almost half of the main building
The interior is accessed by two doors protected by huge albarrana towers, with slender pointed arches that exceed 10 meters in height in the key, and three very disguised shutters. They were built with masonry and angles of ashlars that conserve numerous lapidary inscriptions, such as the Star of David. Both towers albarranas ride on the way of round, and although they are similar, the one of the left is massive, whereas the one of the right, lodges rooms with rooms. The latter has loopholes and four brick machicolations, and is connected to the main tower, inside the enclosure, which also had machicolations. Both towers are climbed by an existing staircase behind the wall
The legend says that the castle communicates through a tunnel with the nearby and mysterious church of Santa María de Melque: the people of the area speak of sheep that get lost in Melque and appear in the Castle of Montalbán and of a shepherd who descended to the castle tunnels and appeared in the church pit
