Castillo de San José

A fortress built into the rock

Castillo de San José crowns the highest point of the crag that Guadalest is built on, a fortress raised in the 11th century during Muslim rule. After the Christian conquest, the troops of Jaime I took the stronghold and the king granted it to the Vidal de Sarrià family, who held it until 1335. Next to Castillo de San José, on the same outcrop, stood a second defensive enclosure, the Castillo de la Alcozaiba, together forming a single defence system for the valley.

The castle's later history is a string of natural and wartime disasters. On 22 June 1644 an earthquake destroyed much of the fortress, and months later, in December of the same year, another powerful tremor struck the area again; further, smaller earthquakes followed in 1748 and 1752. On top of this, in 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, an explosion badly damaged the castle's western wing and set fire to the neighbouring Casa Orduña, an episode that marked the end of the fortress's military role in the area.

A ruin with valley views

Declared a historic-artistic monument in 1993, the castle today is visited as a set of ruins that still holds part of its walls, the old dungeon and a cemetery within its own grounds, along with natural viewpoints over the valley and the reservoir. Access is through the Portal de San José, a passage cut into the rock that remains the traditional entrance to the site, and the visit pairs well with a climb up the nearby Penyó de l'Alcalà, another of the village's viewpoints.