Torre de los Púlpitos - Cáceres, Extremadura, España - Castles on Waymarking.com

"Description
With a square floor plan and built with granite masonry , it faces the Plaza Mayor . Attached to the outside of the wall , it is markedly Christian, with its arrow slits in the shape of a cross and its two front corners topped with cylindrical cubes, whose similarity to the pulpits of a church have earned it its name. These two auctions rest on corbels and have three rows adorned with balls, a typical decorative element of military constructions at the time of the Catholic Monarchs . It is 16 meters high.

History
It was built at the end of the 15th century when the New Gate (current Arco de la Estrella ) was opened in order to defend this new access to the city from its arrow slits. It is the only completely new tower after the Christian reconquest in the whole of the wall, of Almohad construction. Originally, the tower had access through a staircase built from the same wall, like other towers in Cáceres. Over time, its battlements would become a privileged place from which one could contemplate all the public events that took place in the main square, converted from the 16th century into the center of local life. According to some authors, this must have been the place where the master of the order of AlcántaraGoméz de Solís attended the tournaments in the Plaza Mayor commemorating the wedding of his sister Juana. During the course of the tournaments, the family of the master would confront the Clavero Alonso de Monroy (a high position in the order), being taken prisoner and later escaping. This would be the beginning of a long series of confrontations between the Extremaduran nobility that would only end with the end of the civil wars after the victory of Queen Isabel la Católica over Juana la Beltraneja .

Already in the 18th century, the tower lost all its military function and the Mayoralgo family tried to gain private control of it. In 1728 Don José Joaquín de Mayoralgo made a formal request to the local authorities to build an arch that would join his palace with the tower, and in 1738 he repeated the same request, arguing that it would also free up a large space of the walkway itself occupied by the access staircase to the tower, allowing the passage of carriages on said road. Only in 1764 did the family obtain local approval, on the condition that the tower be kept in good condition and the arch be high enough to allow cars to pass through the walkway. In the 1770s, the Mayoralgo family managed to incorporate the tower into the palace for their private use and enjoyment. Don José María de Mayoralgo y Golfín ordered the construction of an arch that crosses the walkway and joins the palace with the wall, creating a corridor that is more than four meters high. This allowed the owners to participate in public events in the Plaza Mayor from the tower without having to leave their own home.

The front of the tower would be practically hidden during the 19th and early 20th centuries by private constructions that wanted to occupy the space of the descending street towards the square. Only after progressive restorations, the entire space of the tower and the adjoining wall canvas would be freed. Currently, the tower of the pulpits is open to the public and can be accessed from the Torre de Bujaco interpretation center ."


(visit link)

Accessibility: Partial access Condition: Partly ruined Admission Charge?: no Website: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   04/27/2022 Ariberna visited it