Alcázar

This article is about Spanish Alcázars. See Alcazar (band) for the article on the pop group.

An alcázar is a Spanish castle, from the Arabic word القصر al qasr meaning 'fortress', in turn from the Latin castellum "fortress" (ultimately from castrum "watchpost"). Many cities in Spain have an alcázar.

Famous Alcazars

• Alcázar de San Juan or simply Alcázar is a town in the province of Ciudad Real, in the plain of La Mancha named for its Moorish fortress, which was afterwards garrisoned by the knights of St John. Much of the action of Cervantes' Don Quixote takes place around Alcázar. The village of El Toboso was the home of the Lady Dulcinea del Toboso; Argamasilla de Alba is declared by tradition to be the birthplace of the original of Don Quixote himself.

The Alcázar of Segovia

• In the Alcázar of Segovia, Queen Isabella of Castile married King Ferdinand II of Aragon. Built in the 11th century and rebuilt in the early 15th century, its Moorish influence is confined to some interior details. A fire in 1862 destroyed most of the structure, which was rebuilt about two decades later in a more romantic style than the original building, giving it the 'too-good-to-be-true' castle appearance of a Spanish Neuschwanstein.

• In Toledo, during the Spanish Civil War, the Alcázar of Toledo was held by the Nationalist Coronel Moscardo against the Republican forces. Republican forces kidnapped Moscardo's son. They said Moscardo could either turn over Alcazar or his son would die. Moscardo did not surrender and his son was murdered in July of 1936.

• The Alcázar of Seville was built in the 1360s by Moorish craftsmen for Pedro the Cruel who, with his mistress, Maria de Padilla, lived in and ruled from the Alcazar, and often remodeled. A UNESCO World Heritage site.

Outside Spain, in modern Palermo, Sicily, the district still called the Cassaro corresponds to the area of ancient Punic settlement of Zis, on high ground that was refortified by the Arabs and called القصر al qasr, and further expanded as the site of the later Norman palace.

General Alcazar is also the name of a character featured in many of the Tintin comic books.

External links

• Entry in Great Buildings website.