Monterreal Castle, Baiona

Monterreal Castle in Baiona, Spain occupies a site whose earliest fortification was a castro or castellum from the 2nd century BCE. Its recorded history resumes in 60 BCE when Julius Caesar conquered Baiona, and the place later bore traces of Roman, Visigothic and Muslim occupation.

Major building at the site began in the 12th century and continued over later centuries. In 1331 a Portuguese fleet led by Admiral Peñaza attacked the fortress and King Fernando I of Portugal established his residence there during that campaign. In 1474 Pedro Madruga erected a tower on nearby Monte Boi; vestiges of that structure survive. During the 15th and 16th centuries the settlement reached its greatest prosperity after Juan II of Castile granted Bayona and A Coruña the right to trade with foreign ports. The town and castle also suffered maritime violence, including attacks by pirates and actions involving Francis Drake. On 1 March 1493 the caravel La Pinta arrived and Martín Alonso Pinzón returned to the coasts of Bayona, an event described as making the town among the first places in Europe to learn of the discovery of the New World. The Catholic Monarchs granted a carta puebla that converted the fortress into a villa, permitting two hundred families to settle inside the walls with the same privileges as Bayona’s inhabitants.

The castle’s present form is the result of a 16th-century rebuilding carried out by Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count of Gondomar, who gave the fortress the name Monterreal in honour of the Catholic Monarchs. In the 20th century Ángel Bedriñana Meana purchased the property in 1924 and invested in its restoration and conservation; his heirs later sold the complex to the Spanish state. Since 1966 the site has been occupied by a Parador Nacional, the Parador del Conde de Gondomar.