The Disneyesque castle rising on a pinnacle high above Vélez Blanco's tiled roofs confronts the great sphinx-like butte La Muela (The Molar Tooth) across the valley as if in a bizarre duel. From the outside, the 16th-century castle is pure Reconquista fortress. But the inside is pure Renaissance palace – or was until 1904, when the carved marble arcades, columns, doorways, window-frames, statues and friezes were sold off by the impoverished owners.
American millionaire George Blumenthal ended up with the entire marble patio and later donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it is on permanent display. There is an ongoing project to make a copy of the patio and reinstall it.
