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Condition: The wall was decimated by the use of the villagers that, since it had become useless as defensive fortress, made use of the stones of the fortress to construct their houses. In 1917 a municipal order prohibited to take stones from the castle to build houses, considering it a threat to the Grotto of Marvels situated right under the same hill. In 1931, during the government of the Republic, and as a result of the reports from Fernando Amador de los Rios, it was declared National Monument. In a restoration carried out in 1971, under the supervision of the Directorate General of Fine Arts, whose director was Florentino Perez Embid, erected strong walls and towers giving it back its appearance as fortress. The church that is next to it, is frequently used and is home to the Brotherhood of the Holy Cross. Inside the image of the town's patron, the Virgen of Greater Sorrow is kept. Actual use: Its functionality is merely contemplative and for cultural and tourist use, as the Church of the Castle, in addition to the cult of the Virgin of Greater Sorrow and its ecclesiastic function, develops various cultural events: concerts, lectures. Architectural sheet: The encastled Aracena must have counted about one hundred twenty-five houses, most of them within the two hectares of land that is allowed by the geography of the fortress. The suburb would grow at the expense of a barbican built as a second line of walls that allowed the life under the protection of the fortress. Mid 15th Century, the expansion, prospering by peaceful times, is occupying the slope with less difficulty and the village grows to the north. The growth leads to building a granary, a municipal cooperative and several local churches that will host the faith of the nearly 6000 inhabitants in the sixteenth century.
The Castle is built around seven to nine towers that are joined by walls built with local stones. Inside there are remnants of the watchtower or tribute tower and two tanks that were used to supply water to the people in the castle. The temple, which construction began in the year 1231, is still based on the Cistercian Romanesque patterns, but as the building advances, it assumes the characteristics of the Gothic period. It will be the first of the temples of the priory under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Seville. It consists of a rectangular plan with three ships of the same height, although the central ship has more width than the lateral ones. The same internal distribution can be seen in the atrium that gives access to the foot of the church. The closure of the roof is made of gothic intersections of stone ribs, the five sections of the church are separated by square columns with semicircular pillars. This construction must already have concluded in the fifteenth century. It has a choir next to the atrium and an apse of a pentagonal form that already in the eighteenth century would be enriched with a polygonal annex in neoclassical style that despite transforming the overall style of the temple is well-suited to its appearance. On a window you can read the date 1727. The most important element, or at least the most visible one, is the Mudejar tower that rises to the left of the top. With a square plan, it has two free sides, forming walls, one side part of the outer construction and the other where you can access the interior and the top of the tower. In one of the free sides, there are sebka ornaments, imitation of the Giralda in Seville. Three sections separated by a central row of bricks that at the bottom form two lobed arches, in the middle a crossing of arches forming eight-pointed stars, and in the upper part arches based on bricks of local production. Above this all, stretches a cross that some attribute to the temple. At the outside one can see a figure of a Star of David, possibly put there by one of the builders of the temple. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century, it suffered a fire that did not affect hardly the stone factory, although during the War of Independence, turned into a powder keg by the French troops, the castle was about to explode when they wanted to abandon their positions in the sierra. Since the 1923 fire caused by lightning, a fence of local construction, donated by the Marquis de Aracena, was added as protection of the dressing room of the apse and the altar. In this space an image of glazed ceramic of Prior Pedro Vazquez is kept, created by Miguel Florentín in the fifteenth century. Historical sheet: Although the origin of the castle, which now presides the town of Aracena, is from the first half of the thirteenth century, there are some indications that point to another fortress at the same place, this time from Andalusian origin, in the 10th century. In his speech as a member of the Royal Academy of History, Professor Pascual Gayangos situated in the heart of Bejar various cities with fortresses, amongst which appear Aroques and Arahem (Aroche and Aracena). Berber riots that ravaged the southern peninsula in the tenth century ended up destroying a walled enclosure which probably neither occupied a large terrain nor did it host a large population. Already in the thirteenth century, following the conquest of these territories by King Alfonso X the Wise and the border confrontations between the Spanish and Portuguese, the latter decided to build the Castle, of which eight centuries later interesting remains still can be found.
The conquest of the area between Aroche and Aracena was shared by Spanish and Portuguese. It ended in 1231. The territories were handed over for safekeeping to the orders of chivalry who helped in the conquest. Aracena was included in the area dominated by the Knights of the Hospital who began the work on the Castle. The Order of the Hospital remained under the Portuguese crown, and so it was under Portuguese rule that the construction of the fortress was started. In 1251, hostilities between the two contenders, the Portuguese and the Spanish, worsened and Alfonso X lead an offensive both military and diplomatic that made him Lord of the land east of the Guadiana, since 1253. As a result of the rivalries between the Portuguese and Spanish conquistadors, the area covered by the Sierra de Aracena, several times changed hands until in 1297, by virtue of the treaty of Alcañices, the towns of Aracena and Aroche finally fall in the territory of Castilla and thusthe most western side of the Sierra Morena is included in the Alfoz of Seville. According to Javier Perez-Embid, the location of the strength is due to strategic utilities, as the site controlled the most important route of mountain roads in the area. The defensive walls to the north and northwest, while the temple was built in the protected area, with the apse most eastward, as allowed for by the terrain. Arts and Culture:
The craft activities in Aracena are varied and plentiful, predominantly of the Sierra. That is why pottery work in Aracena is excellent and of high quality despite the crisis caused by the industrial competition and the remarkable scientific progress.But when it seemed that the existence of the potteries was meaningless, this tradition has returned to recover and regain respect, valued as it should be. Early in the month of December on the eve of La Pura (the Pure), widespread and notorious bonfires are held, locally called 'rehiletes', in which olive twigs and leaves of chestnut are burned. The bonfires are spread to every corner of the city where rehiletes and children are the protagonists. |
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