Sabiote Castle

The Castle of Sabiote was built between 1538 and 1549 on the site of an old Hispano-Muslim citadel following the designs of Andrés de Vandelvira, who converted this fortification into a Renaissance palace for Francisco de los Cobos. The castle forms a rectangular enclosure, with three towers at each of its corners. The outer wall on one side of the rectangle stands out and there is a fourth tower near the corner. The exterior has high ashlar walls, crowned by a parapet with loopholes and murals, shields with helmets and crests, supported by mermaids. The coats of arms, the mouldings that, forming angles, protect them and run all along the walls and the gateway with grotesque pilasters on smooth pedestals, give a note of renaissance elegance that counteracts the roughness of the military fortress.