Castillo de Aljau

Monuments

This important site, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, was found in the process of opening Castillo Street, which was planned in this place and was rejected before the discovery. The Aljau Castle would be one of the fortifications of the town of Aspe el Nuevo, a site located on the plain in the second half of the 13th century, after forcing the abandonment of the Castillo del Río, known as Aspe el Viejo. For a time, the two urban centers survived as demonstrated by a privilege granted by Alfonso X El Sabio to Alicante, dated 1252, in which "Azpe el Viejo" and "Azpe el Nuevo" are repeatedly mentioned. The remains could be defined as a fortification Aragon plant, or quadrangular with towers in the corners, and central courtyard. The access, of which there are remains, seems to be organized with a corridor in a bend protected by a circular border that enables a corridor that surrounds the floor of the patio, without knowing where it ends. Without being discovered the end of the system, resembles the access of the main domus of the Castle of Castile, also dated in the middle of the XIV century. Next to this fortification the remains of a house with several rooms where the home and a jar embedded in the pavement have been documented. Although the state of conservation of these last remains is low, the structures that separate the rooms and the access door to it are distinguished. This house shows a somewhat later chronology, centered on the fifteenth century, which may correspond to an area of ​​extra-urban outskirts, located on the edge of the castle to guarantee its protection.