El Castillo de Llutxent. Entre la Fortaleza y el Palacio

Abstract

The Llutxent castle-palace is located in the urban area of the town of the same name, in the Albaida Valley, province of Valencia (Spain). There are news of the castle since the thirteenth century, although it may have had an Islamic origin. The castle has a square shape with a central courtyard where the cistern is located. It is flanked by four towers, also of square section, at each corner. It is a building of defensive vocation, without holes to the exterior and crenellated. However, the successive interventions in the fifteenth century, turned it into a residential palace building. The openings were decorated with ornaments belonging to the late Gothic in jambs and lintels; access to the first floor, converted into a noble floor, was raised by means of an honour staircase and its landing was carried out through a naya converted into a loggia, very much like the Mediterranean Gothic palaces. The rooms were covered with vaults and wooden beams, highlighting its new use. After passing through different owners, at the end of the nineteenth century was sold to a master builder who subdivided it into small houses, attaching others outside. The original morphology and image was thus largely destroyed. In this paper, an analysis will be made of the different elements that turned this fortress into a palace with great artistic and architectural value. The working methodology has been based on a rigorous data collection by laser scanner and a study of invariants with respect to other contemporary buildings of similar characteristics. The results obtained contribute to establishing the identity of the Gothic palaces in the Mediterranean basin.