Castle of Hornos de Segura

Description

The castle of Hornos is located on a 890 m high limestone promontory on the Vega of the Hornos River, in the wide valley that separates the saws of Segura and Las Villas. The fortress we see today was built by the Order of Santiago in the 13th century on a Muslim fortification from which remains of three square-floor turreons and a aljibe are preserved. The Christian castle is made up of a trapezoidal enclosure, with a large tower of tribute on its wider side and a smaller turret. There are also remains of the enclosure surrounding the urban core, including its original door, known as La Puerta de la Villa, a tower built in two-storey masonry that contains access in "L." The castle currently houses the Cosmolarium, an interpretation center of Astronomy.
The foundation of Furnaces probably occurred in the 10th century, as did that of Segura de la Sierra. Its location over the valley would allow it to exercise complete control of the territory next to Segura and Catena (La Espinareda). Known as Hisn Fornus, between the 11th and 13th centuries it must have had a certain development and defensive capacity, being one of the few localities that highlighted in the area. After the Spanish conquest in 1239 it was given by King Fernando III to the Order of Santiago, who will raise the castle on the remains of the Muslim fortress. He obtained the title of a villa in the first half of the 13th century.
 

Written sources refer to Hornos as Hisn, meaning a fortified place. The enclosure that survives today dates from the Late Medieval Castilian period, although it retains, blended in, some Islamic elements. It has a slightly trapezoidal shape, with a large keep on its widest side and a smaller one, both on the south-eastern wall of the enclosure. Inside the enclosure, between the two towers, stands the main cistern, of Islamic origin.

On its southern side, the rocky configuration of the promontory was put to use, with defensive walls built along the more vulnerable stretches, while the rock itself served as a natural defence elsewhere.

The keep has a square floor plan and is built in masonry, with rounded corners, and is divided internally into three levels.

The lower part has a rocky base housing a cistern, accessed from the first floor. On this floor is the entrance to the tower, several metres above ground level. From this second level, a staircase built into the wall leads up to a third, both floors having rooms covered with barrel vaults. 

This tower and part of the castle enclosure have been restored, but in the unrepaired sections of the walls and in the smaller towers, the original construction can still be seen: irregular, bonded masonry covered with mortar. 

The castle wall extended to form an enclosure surrounding the town centre. Two square-plan towers survive today, one of them incorporated into a present-day building. Also surviving is the so-called Puerta de la Villa, an angled entrance set within a two-storey masonry tower, topped by a continuous parapet pierced with a few arrow slits, which formed part of the enclosure of Almohad origin.

The castle underwent extensive restoration in 1973. The town was declared a Historic-Artistic Site in 1985. The castle now houses the Cosmolarium, an Astronomy interpretation centre and a planetarium for full-dome film screenings.

Some prehistoric settlements have been identified within the Sierra, but between the end of the Bronze Age and the Roman period, settlements are found only in the valleys and more open areas. 

During the Roman period, occupation of these valleys was organised through small, scattered settlements, but between the 2nd and 3rd centuries a process of land concentration seems to have taken place. From the 6th century onwards, peasant populations fled the large estates under pressure from landowners, taking refuge for several centuries in inaccessible spots within the mountains, as must have happened, among others, with the large settlement of Segura La Vieja. 

Between the 8th and 10th centuries, a return to the valleys of Segura probably took place, a region now controlled by muladíes (Muslim converts of Iberian origin). The choice of these sites was driven by their strategic position and by the abundance of water in the surrounding area. Hornos was probably founded in this context, around the 10th century, as was Segura de la Sierra, though it does not appear in Arab sources before the 12th century, or already during the Castilian conquest. Its position above the valley allowed Hornos, together with Segura and Catena (La Espinareda), to exercise complete control over a territory where significant irrigated agriculture developed. Referred to in the sources as Hisn Fornus, it would originally have been a hamlet defended by its steep location and by a walled enclosure, forming part of the territories controlled by the rebel muladí Ibn al-Saliya during the fitna (Civil War) of the late 9th century.

Between the 11th and 13th centuries, very few settlements of note existed in the area, although Segura and Hornos are clearly mentioned in Arab sources. During this period they grew in importance, especially Segura, for which abundant records survive. Hornos is also mentioned repeatedly, but its development and defensive capacity appear to have been more limited.

Shortly after the arrival of the Castilians, it appears deserted, indicating that at that time it must have been a settlement of little significance, although it would later be resettled and gradually develop. Following its conquest in 1239 by Don Pedro Pérez Pelayo Correa, Master of the Order of Santiago, it received the title of villa and was granted by Ferdinand III the Saint to the Order, which would build the castle upon the remains of the Muslim fortress. 
Hornos, together with Segura de la Sierra, was one of the sites where the political ambitions of the Manrique family played out in the 15th century, in conflict with the monarchs John II and Henry IV. The Manriques controlled a large part of the resources of the Order of Santiago, thanks to which Rodrigo Manrique, Commander of Segura, proclaimed himself Grand Master of the Order, resisting and defeating the troops of John II and Don Álvaro de Luna at Hornos. 
It remained part of the Santiaguista lordship of Segura de la Sierra throughout the Early Modern period, belonging to the Kingdom of Murcia between 1507 and 1748.