Castillo de Cocentaina

Monuments

The hill called of the ‘El Castell’ is located at the highest point of the mountain called ‘Penyeta Blanca’. This location has witnessed several settlements from the Iberian age, the Muslim Rule and the Christian conquest. Evidence from Iberian culture are just several archaeological pieces found on the ground surface. Although, from the Islamic period (11Th, 12Th, 13Th centuries) there remains a wall possibly related to the kind of city wall used to protect people and animals from those dangerous times. The Christian conquest reinforced the importance of this hill as a defensive position. The Muslim ‘Hûsun’ (castle) was converted in an emphatic gothic-military keep in the first years of the 14Th century, under the rule of Roger de Llúria. This building shows a square base, on an irregular surface. Inside, a permanent exhibition about its history is shown. From the same age some wall remains can be seen, on the high side of the hill. These buildings have been interpreted as foundations of other disappeared buildings. In the mid of the 15Th century the Earl of Cocentaina gave orders to build a round tower for accommodate defence and artillery. The raison d’etre of the overall architecture from the 14Th and 15Th centuries, is related with defense and communication with other needs of other fortifications as means to warn the population of enemy invasion,. The rectangular structure with ‘tapial’ walls (mud wall) called ‘Bassa del Moro’ (Moorish pool) located in the far south side, should not be part of the defensive system, as it was related with the irrigation system from the Muslim age.