Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Spain / Alarcón / Parador de Alarcón
Parador de Alarcón
Alarcón, Spain · Paradores · Accessible Luxury
The Parador de Alarcón occupies a genuine hilltop fortress whose walls have stood for more than 1,300 years, dramatically encircled by a bend in the Júcar River in the province of Cuenca. Likely of pre-Roman origin, it was the Moors who made it a true citadel in the 8th century, holding it for four centuries under the Emirate of Córdoba and the Taifa of Toledo until Alfonso VIII's forces took it after a nine-month siege in 1184.
- 14 rooms
- Opened 1966
- Neighborhood: Alarcon hilltop
About Parador de Alarcón
- Don Juan Manuel, nephew of Alfonso X, wrote part of El Conde Lucanor inside the castle in the 1330s.
- The Spanish state rescued the ruin in 1963 and opened a 14-room parador in 1966.
- Alarcon Dam is about 7 km; much of what you see is Gothic with a Renaissance overlay on Moorish bones.
History
The Parador de Alarcón occupies a genuine hilltop fortress whose walls have stood for more than 1,300 years, dramatically encircled by a bend in the Júcar River in the province of Cuenca. Likely of pre-Roman origin, it was the Moors who made it a true citadel in the 8th century, holding it for four centuries under the Emirate of Córdoba and the Taifa of Toledo until Alfonso VIII's forces took it after a nine-month siege in 1184. Much of the structure seen today is Gothic, with a Renaissance-era keep; the writer Don Juan Manuel, nephew of Alfonso X, composed part of "El Conde Lucanor" here in the 1330s, and the castle later passed to the Marquises of Villena.
By the 18th century the fortress had fallen into ruin and stood abandoned in the 19th century. The Spanish government rescued it in 1963 and, after extensive restoration, opened it as a parador three years later, in 1966, with just 14 rooms set within the original castle walls — one of Spain's most atmospheric historic hotels.
The setting
Hilltop fortress in a bend of the Jucar, Alarcon, Cuenca province.
Restaurants and bars
- Restaurante Parador de Alarcón — Restaurant
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