Almansa

#182 Castillo de Almansa
Almansa, Albacete, Spain
After 1255, 1346 & 1449-54
This is NOT an official Lego site

Almansa Castle resides on an elongated rocky, craggy mass rising out of the plain on the north edge of the city of Almansa, in the province of Albacete in what is now called Castilla La Mancha. It is speculated that both a Roman fort and a Moorish fortress occupied the site before the conquest in Almansa by James I 'the Conqueror', the King of Aragon, in 1255. He ceded Almansa to the Knights Templar, and it is very likely they constructed some sort of the castle on the rocky summit before they were discredited and suppressed in 1312. Much of the castle as we see it today was built by Don Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena (1282- ), about 1346. He was extremely wealthy and powerful, and chose writing as his vocation and greatest claim to future fame.

In 1444 King Juan [John] II granted Almansa, and the surrounding area in southeastern Spain, to Alfonso Téllez Girón y Vázquez de Acuña (d. 1449), a Castilian soldier and nobleman of Portuguese origin. He passed Almansa on to his son, Juan Fernández Pacheco y Téllez Girón, generally known as Don Juan Pacheco (1419-1474), 2nd Marques of Villena, who added the tall rectangular donjon and other sections to the castle. In 1469 when Princess Isabella married Fernando [Ferdinand] II, King of Aragon, and the War of Castilian Succession soon followed, Juan Pacheco sided with Juana of Castile, known as la Beltraneja (bastard daughter of King Henry IV), in a losing cause.

Beginning in the 16th century, the castle was in a continuous state of gradual deterioration, though it was used by troops of the Duke of Berwick in 1707 during the War of Spanish Succession. Berwick commanded the troops of the Philip V, Bourbon claimant to the Spanish throne, against his Habsburg rival, Archduke Charles of Austria. Clearly outnumbered, Berwick won what has been described as "the single most important battle fought in Spain". The castle had so deteriorated by 1919 that the mayor of Almansa requested permission to demolish it. A report by the Royal Academy of History resulted in the ruin not only being saved, but declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument in 1921. Several restoration projects have resulted in the castle being an important and stunning tourist attraction.


Photograph of Almansa from the East	Looking down from the top of the staircase to the keep	The spiral staircase inside the Keep	View from the Keep looking South


Construction begins on January 23 as the castle is laid out in a rough merlon pattern.	Here is the south end.	And the north view.	Within 24 hours the "rocky, craggy mass" begins to form around the castle.


And the view from the south...	...and the north.	By the 29th of January entrance gates are in place...	...and curtain walls and courtyard are beginning to take shape.


Here is the main entrance view on the town end.	The north entrance seems much less accessable.	On January 30 towers are rising, and the main stair to the keep is visible.	The long east curtain wall even has crenels and merlons.


On February 1 the lower castle is nearing completion...	...with the second gate and its battle- ments constructed.	The rocky crag is finally completed, with only vegetation to be added.	And work on the upper castle and keep begins.	By February 3rd, the upper castle has risen to its final height, and the keep is becoming defined. On the 8th, the castle is just 50 elements from completion, but the shipment from Delaware isn't here, and I'm off to Florida.

Photos of the Lego Model Built January - February 2023

And finally here are the pictures of the model, completed on February 22, 2023. This is the view from the west.	And the southwest.	The view from the south emphasizes the narrowness of the castle ridge.	The impressive view from the southeast.


The view of the castle from the east side.	The northeast angle best shows off the courtyards.	The daunting view of ridge and castle from the north.	And from a bit more elevation.	And finally, the view from the northwest.


Here is a closer look at the main entrance.	And the winding barbican/forecastle.	Inside the main gate is the upper courtyard.	Here's a close-up of the stairs to the "prow" and tall keep.	And the staircase into the north end of the keep.	The narrow outer courtyard and some curtain wall.	And the parade yard and less accessible north gate.

Build Your Own
The plan and elevations are not only too large for me to scan, but I did not have a good plan when the model was originally designed about 20 years ago. This model was designed pretty much based on the position and number of merlons on the castle walls!

No Plan	No Elevations	No Cross Section


East Elevation	North Elevation	West Elevation	South Elevation


South-North Cross Section	West-East Cross Section