Restoration (phases I-II) of the Castle of Torrejón de Velasco
The castle of Torrejón de Velasco is a stately fortification built during the 15th century
Restoration of the Castle of Torrejón de Velasco
The castle of Torrejón de Velasco is a stately fortress built during the 15th century. It has a turreted precinct, where the keep stands out, at the base of which is the access in turn to the interior of the castle. There are a set of dependencies around the central courtyard.
Residence and temporary prison during the modern age, it housed a soap factory in the 18th century. It suffered great damages during the War of the Independence and after its abandonment it ended up becoming a ruin. During the first phase of intervention, documentation work has been carried out and the deterioration process has been stopped. A second phase aims to stop definitively and begin to reverse the process of ruin.
The castle of Torrejón de Velasco responds to the pattern of the stately castle of medium size. It is formed by a rectangular tower with a rectangular floor that housed a set of attached dependencies and distributed around a central courtyard where a water collection system is available. The nine semicylindrical towers protrude from the enclosure, locating one in each of the four corners, two in the longest panels (north and south) and one in the middle of the west panel. The keep, with a rectangular floor plan and remains of four floors from which the floor slabs have been lost, is located on the eastern canvas. The main access, in turn, occurs through a pointed arch door of ashlar located on the south side of the keep, defended by the southeast corner cube.
The set is built in irregular masonry factory with a tendency to concerted limestone and mortar and stone filling in all its structures, with walls of almost a meter and a half thick, and about 13 meters high, which rise over a Solid baseboard In the windows of the tower of the homage masonry is used in the jambs and brick in the arcs of discharge.
In 1432 the town of Torrejón was owned by the bishop of Palencia Gutierre Gómez de Toledo. It is very likely that he was the promoter of the works of the castle, which stands on the site of a previous fortification. The keep is dated to 1465. At that time the castle passed to the Arias Dávila family, raised to the county of Puñonrostro by Carlos I in 1523 in recognition for his participation in favor of the crown in the revolt of the Communities.
It welcomed the stay of the emperor and of Francisco I when it went to Illescas to celebrate "the views" for its marriage of this with Do6na Leonor, sister of Carlos I, and served like place of incarceration of the secretary of camera of Felipe II Antonio Perez, in 1587.
In 1775 the counts of Puñonrostro stopped using the fortress as a residence, installing in it a soap factory and another of wool spinning. During the War of Independence, the castle was occupied by the French troops that devastated the interior, leaving it extremely damaged to its withdrawal. At this time the unstoppable process of deterioration began, accentuating after the confiscation, coming to be reduced to the canvases and the towers that flanked them.
Image gallery
Tower of homage previous to the works
Tower of the tribute reinforced with concrete to avoid its collapse, in which it is evident which is the original part and which is the modern one.
Courtyard of arms with tower of homage to the background
Exterior view of the castle
Exterior view of the castle
Interior from the courtyard.
It is observed how the mechinales of the beams are preserved.
Interior of one of the nine semi-cylindrical towers
Exterior of one of the nine semi-cylindrical towers
Restaurants
The advanced state of ruin in which the castle was located and the risk of partial collapse of some main elements motivated the intervention that was structured in two phases.
The main objective of the first phase was to guarantee formal and structural stability and to halt the accelerated and serious process of deterioration. After making a perimeter fence and placing security protections, the dismantling and demolition of the construction elements in danger of detachment was carried out and the walls and bays that required it were placed.
At the same time, an exhaustive photogrammetric and topographic documentation was carried out for its later use as a basis for the elaboration of the studies of paramentos and pathologies.
The archaeological excavation of the interior of the castle's courtyard and the interior of the keep was also carried out.
The perimeter drainage of the interior and exterior of the enclosure was carried out, in order to avoid the degradation of the walls due to the rise and the effect of the water at its start.
In addition, the most deteriorated plinths of the southwest façade were consolidated and rebuilt and the cracks in the corner towers were sewn in. The canvases and cubes of the northwest elevation were consolidated, stabilized and cleaned, and the placement of prefabricated nest boxes that will gradually replace the vessels used to date as nests by the lesser kestrel.
Despite all these measures, the deterioration process continues its course. In the second phase of the project, the elements of the greatest architectural value are being recovered, such as the keep and the cubes and canvases of the castle itself. The objective of the second phase of interventions, which runs between 2017 and 2018, is the consolidation and stabilization of the walled enclosure and the reconstruction of some architectural elements, in addition to the archaeological studies in the keep and its surroundings together with the reading of walls of the same.
The first objective of this second phase of the intervention is to stop the degradation that the castle presents. The previous studies showed the need to stabilize the loose material in the walls, by consolidating factories and reconstructing those architectural elements that require it.
The second objective is to prevent the entry of birds, mainly in the Torre del Homenaje, which in the future will be used as an interpretation center. In addition, it is necessary to build floors, roof and a staircase that communicates vertically the different floors.
Parallel to these works are recovered and studied the materials from the rubble and archaeological excavations in order to be classified with archaeological criteria for replacement, mainly in the cubes of the enclosure.
