Belmonte, Spain

Belmonte, Spain

Belmonte Spain

Belmonte is a Spanish municipality in the province of Cuenca, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha. It is located at kilometre 342 of the N-420 road, which runs from Cuenca to Alcázar de San Juan, and continues from Córdoba to Tarragona. Excavations carried out in the Collegiate Church in 1976, due to the collapse of part of the apse, uncovered the remains of an earlier Visigothic church, possibly from the fifth century, which proves that the settlement is older than previously thought. In some documents it is mistakenly referred to as “The Huts”, although it has always been called Bellomonte. In the bull of Pope Innocent III, a bishop of Cuenca called García refers to it as Bellomonte, named after the hill that surrounds the town. In 1294 it appears in the account book of King Sancho IV among the towns where coin was collected to pay the gentlemen who were to accompany Don Juan Manuel, the future Prince of Villena, to the land of Murcia. In 1323 it begins to gain historical importance, as the Chronicon domini Joannis Enmanuelis states that in that year Don Juan Manuel (nephew of Alfonso X) began to build the town walls of “Belmont”, and at the same time constructed the Old Alcázar. The first member of the Pacheco family to be lord of the town was Juan Fernández Pacheco, who received it from King Enrique III by royal grant signed in Tordesillas on 16 May 1398, “for being a person of great importance in war”. The lordship passed to his daughter María, who married Alfonso Téllez Girón y Vázquez de Acuña. The couple had two sons, Juan Pacheco and Pedro Girón, both born in Belmonte. Pedro Girón inherited the lordship. The elder, Juan Pacheco, first Marquis of Villena, ordered the construction of Belmonte Castle in 1456 and the Collegiate Church of San Bartolomé around the same time as the castle. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, Belmonte enjoyed a golden age, from which numerous buildings have been preserved.
Recommended airport
Adolfo Suárez Madrid Barajas (MAD)
Nearby destinations
  • Alcázar de San Juan a 48.41 km
  • Campo de Criptana a 41.05 km
  • Socuéllamos a 32.02 km