Castillo de Dos Hermanas

Castillo de Dos Hermanas, in Montemayor, Spain, was developed in its medieval form during the Almoravid and Almohad occupations, while earlier Roman engineering lies beneath its southern walls.

A Roman phase is documented by the discovery of a concrete reservoir below the southern curtain during excavations in 2019–2020. That structure was built of Roman concrete and served to store water for agricultural use, indicating activity on the site before the medieval fortification appears in the archaeological record.

The castle’s medieval origins are attributed to a period of frontier consolidation under Almoravid and Almohad rule between the 11th and 13th centuries. That attribution rests on the absence of the green-and-manganese ceramics associated with the Caliphate of Córdoba and on the presence of rammed-earth construction techniques. After the Christian conquest around 1240 by Ferdinand III of Castile, control of the fortress passed to Fernán Núñez de Témez, who undertook a refounding of the site. During this phase the rammed-earth towers were amortizadas and the defended area was extended beyond an earlier enclosing fence.

In the years following the conquest the castle was organized around a central courtyard and likely included an outer bailey. Numerous rooms were added against the curtain wall to serve as workshops for guilds, storerooms, a cistern and stables, and a stairway was built to give access to the rampart walk. A later construction phase between the 14th and 15th centuries subdivided interior spaces and reformed the stables. Excavations have produced abundant Manises ceramics, including pieces dated into the 16th century, and cathedral archive entries record payments by the parish of Dos Hermanas until at least 1498, which indicates a continued settled presence associated with the castle.

In recent years the municipality acquired the site in 2014 to allow archaeological investigation and restoration. Emergency consolidation work took place in 2016 and ground injections to strengthen foundations were carried out in 2017 by architect José Manuel Reyes Alcalá. Excavations began in 2019–2020 and subsequent excavation and consolidation campaigns were directed by archaeologist Antonio Moreno together with architect-restorer José Manuel Reyes Alcalá, with project activity recorded in 2016–2018, 2020, 2021 and 2023.