The Keep in Estepa

The Keep is without doubt the most interesting architectural feature of the walled enclosure of Estepa. With a square floor plan, 13 m on each side and 26 m high, it is carved from stone blocks which are decoratively placed at the base, corners and around the openings. The remaining parameters are stucco. It is a solid wall up to half of its height, in the interior there is a square floor plan chamber covered with an octagonal ribbed Gothic vault. The cross arches rest on corbels with the five fig leaves corresponding to the coat of arms of Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa.

The Cross of Santiago was sculpted on the keystone or central stone, as a symbol of the "Encomienda" or labour system to which this town belonged from 1267 to 1559. Lobed windows open on the north and south faces. Only traces of the corbels that supported the sentry boxes on its corners remain on the crowning.

The construction of the Keep represented the culmination of a process known as "seigniorialisation", in which, in addition to military elements, social, anthropological and even symbolic concepts can be traced. Work was completed in 1390 and represented a complete remodelling of the entire west corner of the primitive enclosure.

Later chronicles also include information on the mentor of the tower and the inscription placed at the entrance: "This tower was built following orders by Fazer Don Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa Maestre de Santiago. Anyone wanting to know what it costs should build another just like it, and then they will find out".