School of Valladolid

The School of Valladolid

The name "School of Valladolid" is used to describe a special style of castle building, used in the Duero valley in the second half of 15th century, and following the model given by king Enrique IV in his reforms for the royal castles of Medina del Campo, Portillo & Segovia (the "Torre Nueva"). Immediately, the great Noble families of the area will respond building their own castles according to the same model (Torrelobatón, Fuentes de Valdepero, Peñafiel, Fuensaldaña ...). Nevertheless, most of the castles of this School were built by a new class of noblemen, many of them of Jewish origin, as an attempt of elbowing themshelves in among the old nobility.
Most of these castles were built following a similar process, usually needing two generations of the family: they were influential members of the cities of the Duero Valley (Valladolid, Medina del Campo, Toro ...), with positions in the administration and close, therefore, to the Royal Court. These personages will try to obtain their small lordships by means of the purchase of a nearby town (Fuensaldaña, Villafuerte ...), a process that could last up to twenty years. Once their title of nobility was obtained and they received the right to keep their royal land grants within their family (what was called a "mayorazgo"), the next step was the construction of a castle, work made generally by the following generation of the family, and to which it will be necessary to dedicate all means to his reach.
The construction of the castle will be made imitating the structure of the castles previously mentioned, with a square plan and a great Homage Tower. The height of the walls was equal to half the length of one side of this square. The great Homage Tower rose to a height equal to the length of one side or twice the height of the surrounding walls. Generally with less economic resources, these minor noblemen had to be satisfied with lesser castles, but conserving the same proportions. They will be, thus, authentic copies on scale of the castles of the great Lords (a typical example would be about 40 meters of height for a great castle, and 25 for a small one).
These castles, with a great Homage Tower will be obsolete in a few years, because of the appearance of the artillery, thus being reduced to simple symbols of ostentation on the part of their builders.