We were driving along the road from Bilbao to visit Gernika this day, when suddenly, out of nowhere, without any road sign – we saw the pinnacles above the dense forest. A castle. This castle is located in Gatika, in the province of Biscay, in northern Spain
We turned left off the road and decided to have a closer look at it – and after some twists and turns of narrow roads – we found it.
The castle has a fairy-tale look about it, and as we started walking around it, we realised that the place was abandoned and nobody lived there. Further down the road we found pictures of knights and horses, together with a closed down, dilapidated café. The premises had probably been used for games or jousting.
A look at Wikipedia tells us that the present building was created as a hobby for its then owner and to create something visually spectacular rather than to produce something for people to live in. ” In fact it would be quite inconvenient as a home as the towers have little useful space and various parts of the castle have exterior connections which are not particularly apt for the wet Basque weather.”
The building is surrounded by an overgrown park which includes palms and exotic plants. We thought the forlorn castle must be totally unknown, but in fact it seems this is not the case…As any other little girl, Kate Middleton’s dream once was to get married in this fairy tale castle. (Said in a BBC interview with David Ferald.)
Back in Bilbao again in the evening, we learned from our host that the castle is named Castillo de Butrón . (He even had a painting of Butrón on the wall.) It dates originally from the Middle Ages, although it owes its present appearance to an almost complete rebuilding, inspired by Bavarian castle models, begun by Francisco de Cubas (also known as Marqués de Cubas) in 1878.
The castle fell into disuse, was later renovated and opened again, but the building was finally closed to visitors although the grounds remained open.
In November 2005 the building was purchased by INBISA (Grupo Empresarial) for about 1,6 million euros, but it remains under the general protection of Spanish law in respect of historic buildings in Spain.
Awesome building!
I could live there…as a fairy!
Totally!
Quite some unusual hobby, I must say 🙂
And expensive too..
What an amazing structure, it would be fun to have a wedding at this location.
That is what Kate Middleton obviously thought too!
Underbar gammal byggnad.
Törnrosa sov nog bakom något av de igenvuxna fönstren…
Underbart ställe, vilken lycka att springa på detta!!
Ibland har man tur. Det gäller att hålla ögonen öppna – men man missar mycket ändå.
Wow, how amazing this must have been to have it suddenly appear in view.
It was! And a bit strange and frustrating when we could not find the road to it at first.
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That’s awesome you got to experience such an architectural feat! Very informative post
Thank you Jake. This castle was a Sleeping Beauty😚
What an unusual building! I feel ambivalent about its purpose. Seems in some ways, a waste, in that it is unusable, in other ways, it is inspiring, a wonderful piece of architecture.
I feel the same. But loved it finding a true Sleeping Beauty!