Castle of Santiago

The Castle of Santiago is located in what is called Cava del Castillo, in the Barrio Alto neighbourhood in Sanlúcar de Barrameda.
The town has been under the jurisdiction of Jerez since 1264. when it was handed over to Alfonso Pérez de Guzmán by Sancho IV as a reward for his heroism in the defence of the stronghold of Tarifa and since then it has become an urban complex developed around the primitive Moorish castle called the Seven Towers. Guzmán el Bueno had the walls built at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century. Between 1477 and 1478, the seventh Lord of the Town, Enrique Pérez de Guzmán, built the great fortress of the Castle of Santiago, located in the northern corner of the walled enclosure of the old town, and it appears as an imposing structure on the edge of a gully where it defends the riverbank and mouth of the Guadalquivir.
The fortress, which served as accommodation for the Catholic Monarchs in 1477, features an octagonal Keep from where Queen Isabella the Catholic saw the sea for the first time. It was equipped with artillery from the time it was built until the beginning of the 18th century, when it lost defensive importance due to the continual ebbing of the river. Threatened with ruin at the end of that century, it underwent a number of repairs and transformations throughout the 19th century, and served as accommodation for the French occupation troops during the War of Independence.
It was the first residence of the Dukes of Medina Sidonia in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. During the War of Independence it was a barracks for the French troops. Throughout history, it has been used as a barracks, a jail and a hospital.