A little-known detail of the battlements of one of the largest castles in Galicia

On October 12th I had the opportunity to visit one of my favorite places, which I hadn't been to for a while: Monterreal Castle.

The Krak des Chevaliers, a great Crusader fortress that was conquered by deception
Vrana: the ruins of an old castle of the order of the Knights Templar in Croatia

12 years ago I published a very long article here about this castle, located in Bayona (Pontevedra, Spain), a beautiful coastal town that I encourage you to visit at any time of the year. That was one of the longest articles and the one that has taken me the longest time to write of all those I have published so far on this blog. The reason was worth it, since this is one of the largest castles in Galicia.

Monterreal Castle was used for military purposes until 1859. After being abandoned, the State auctioned it off in 1872. Five years later it was acquired by the engineer and conservative politician José Elduayen Gorriti, Marquis of Pazo de la Merced. The main street in Bayona is named after him. Elduayen established his residence inside the castle, building a beautiful mansion on the foundations of the old Franciscan convent that was in the area.

The castle fell into a state of neglect. In 1963, the State acquired this historic site to establish a Parador Nacional de Turismo, which was opened in 1966 under the name Parador Nacional Conde de Gondomar. Today, it is one of the most spectacular centres in the network of Paradores Nacionales in Spain.

As I told you in 2012, during the years in which the current Parador Nacional was built, the castle walls were also restored. Thanks to this restoration, the walls are as splendid as we see them today.

The problem with this restoration is that it did not take into account that this castle reflects different eras in its walls.

For example, this part of the castle, located next to what was formerly known as the Huerta de los Frailes, shows battlements typical of a medieval wall. However, not the entire complex is like this.

An example of a different type of wall can be seen in the San Antón Battery, above these lines, located next to the current La Pinta Tavern and which preserves several cannons with the inscription "Truvia 1853".

We see something similar in the battery located at the entrance of the castle, a typical bastion of the fortresses of the Modern Age.

The Santiago Battery is in the same style, with a cross and two cannons, one of the favourite places for tourists to see the beautiful sunsets of this site.

The mistake they made in the restoration of the castle can be clearly seen in the Bastion of La Concheira, located next to the beach of La Concheira. As we can see, the lower enclosure is a modern bastion, but with medieval-style battlements.

In this other photo of the Bastion of La Concheira we can see what happened. Someone must have thought that a modern bastion was out of place with the style of the medieval walls in other parts of the castle, so they put battlements where there were none and even covered up the original gun ports. This bastion had four gun ports for four cannons. You can still see them in the photo.

Obviously, this error in the restoration does not detract from the rest of the castle, which is spectacular. If you come to the Galician Rías Bajas and have the opportunity to pass through Bayona, I encourage you to visit this castle and take a long walk along its formidable walls (the perimeter measures a total of 2 kilometers and there are some formidable views along the entire route).