Sunday 11 February 2024, 08:47
The advertising slogan of Castillo de Lachar (Granada province) is “Treasures to be discovered.” Winner of the Travelers’ Choice Award in 2022 and 2023 and part of Spain’s Historic Heritage Network (Red de Patrimonio Histórico), this castle is well known, but secrets about Europe’s most famous historical figure are hidden. is hidden behind the castle walls. .
The original tower was built in the 14th century, and the building began as a farmhouse on the land of the Nasrid royal family, although some theories date the first construction to the Visigoths in the early 8th century.
The tower remained as a watchtower until the Reconquista at the end of the 15th century, when it passed into the hands of the Canaveral family and was expanded over the years. In 1885, Julio Quesada-Canaveral and Piedrola of La Char, Duke of San Pedro de Galatino and Grand Duke of Spain, Count of Benalua Las Villas, ordered the construction of a palace on the ruins of Islamic architecture.
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The building was built in the Neo-Arabic style, using traditional Islamic art such as tiles and 16th-century carved doors, and was very much to the duke’s taste. This would be seen a few years later in one of his projects, the Alhambra Palace Hotel.
Among the duke’s friends was King Alfonso XII of Spain, with whom he attended school, and later his son Alfonso XIII also became a regular customer. In fact, it was he who gave the Duke the titles of San Pedro de Galatino and Grande de España.
Other European royal guests who accompanied Alfonso It is believed that he brought the author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with him. Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla also visited Lachar with King Alfonso XIII. The result of this visit was the completion of his painting “The Chapel of Lashar”, which is now in the Sorolla Museum in Madrid.
Finca de Lachar Chapel in Sorolla.
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The Duke of San Pedro de Galatino died in 1936 just before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and the castle was taken over by Spain’s now-defunct National Institute for Colonization until 1971. I did. , when the institution sold it to a private owner, an English-American called Donald Leroy Brown, also known as Lord Merton.
Brown then transferred the property to Dutchman Helm Jan van Asselt, known in Lachar as “Mr. Harris”. He was honorary consul of Guinea-Bissau, and for several years the country’s flag was flown in this castle. He and his wife Edwina considered converting it into a hotel and made further modifications to do so, but the plans never really came to fruition. The castle was designated as a Cultural Heritage Site (BIC) in 1985.
In 2005, Edwina van Asselt, fed up with people trying to visit her castle thinking it was open to the public, asked people to stop calling her because it was privately owned and not open to the public. issued a statement appealing. Her complaint was published in Granada’s Ideal newspaper.
On June 15, 2016, the property was acquired by the Rachar y Peñuelas City Hall and after a year of restoration work, the castle was opened to the public, although it was in very poor condition. Guided tours and visits can be booked through the castle’s website. More information about its history is also available in Spanish and English on the website: Castillo de Láchar