Grajal de Campos: Spain's first artillery castle

On the flat cereal plains of the Tierra de Campos, a few kilometres south of Sahagun in the province of Leon, the small village of Grajal de Campos guards a remarkable fortress. Begun around 1517 by the powerful Hernando de Vega, it is regarded as the first castle in Spain built specifically for the age of artillery, its low, thick walls pierced with wide gun-ports and braced by stout round corner bastions. It was declared a national monument in 1931.

The castle and the palace

Beside the castle stands the Renaissance Palace of the Counts of Grajal, raised between 1517 and 1523 with an Italianate facade of round arches and wrought-iron balconies, also protected as a monument. The two form a single noble ensemble together with the church of San Miguel Arcangel, whose upper part connects to the palace.

A walk through the village

Barely two hundred people live here now, but the streets still follow the line of the old walls, one of whose five gateways survives, and the houses keep the warm earth tones of the mud-and-brick architecture typical of the region. Many homes conceal underground wine cellars, a reminder of a long tradition of local wines made from Tempranillo and Prieto Picudo grapes.

Visiting

Grajal lies about five kilometres from Sahagun, a stop on the Camino de Santiago, and some sixty kilometres south-east of the city of Leon.