Puertomingalvo Castle

The existence of the castle is known as early as April 1202, with the Arabic name of castrum de Avingalbón or Avingalon. The Aragonese king Pedro II the Catholic donated this castle and that of Linares de Mora to the bishop of Zaragoza, Don Ramón de Castrocol, and to the Chapter of the Cathedral. In 1532 Fadrique de Portugal, archbishop of Zaragoza, received the royal mandate to visit and restore a series of castles in Teruel, among which was the castle of El Puerto; he ordered the masters Juan de la Mira and Juan Galí to visit all these castles. The works were not carried out because they entailed an enormous economic cost. Abandoned for centuries, the parade ground was used as a cemetery until rehabilitation work began, sponsored by the DGA, in the decade of 1985-95. The fortress, of small dimensions, stands on a rocky limestone outcrop located at the western end of the town. At the present time it conserves part of its original physiognomy in quite good condition, although the crenellated tops have been lost. or what concerns the enclosure, of trapezoidal form, it is curious to observe that the main wall has a tracing in Z. The parade ground is accessed through a tetragonal tower-door; the other tower, pentagonal in plan and ten meters wide, is the keep; since the Middle Ages it was the occasional residence of the lords of Puertomingalvo; at present, it houses a permanent exhibition of ethnological pieces. The parade ground has been recently refurbished; with the addition of a stage located in front of the door of the keep, the population can enjoy all kinds of shows. The Maestrazgo Cultural Park has set up the Maestrazgo Castles Interpretation Center in the dungeons of the Town Hall: its spacious rooms exhibit, together with an idealized model of the original configuration of this fortification, a whole set of keys - graphic, audiovisual, documentary and plastic - that enable a proper understanding of the medieval fortifications. There is the possibility of arranging a guided tour of the castle by visiting the Tourist Office. The price of the visit is 1 € per person for the maintenance of the facilities.