Description
There are only remains of this castle of a bulldozer built by Muslims before the Battle of the Saves of Tolosa. It is located inside the Natural Park, on the heights of the port of Muradal, to keep the Paso de la Losa, route between Andalusia and the Plateau. It is accessed exclusively by forest track.
In 1169 the Castle of Castro Ferral was conquered by Calatravos, commanded by Fernando de Icaza, the second Master of the Order. However, before the battle of the Navas de Tolosa, the fortress was again under Muslim control. Ferral would lead several acts of weapons during the military campaign that would end with the Christian triumph of the Navy (1212). The strategic importance of this castle, by controlling one of the traditional steps of Sierra Morena, made it an essential objective for any army that would want to cross the area.
The transfer of the border to the Betic Cordilleras marked the decline of Castro Ferral, who lost his role as a watchman for access to the Guadalquivir Valley. The foundation of St. Helena (Ermita de los Palacios), which has made it less important as a reference centre for the small population of those contours, was joined. In an undetermined time, they beat it to prevent it from becoming a jumpers' den.
The castle of Ferral was made up of three defensive enclosures. The first, currently the worst preserved, was a broad emulated in the slope of land that closed the top of the fence describing an almost perfect circle. This defensive line is more solid and pronounced at the North and North-East ends, where the land gap is greater.
In its interior is developed a second enclosure, possibly built in ground tapial on the base of masonry, from which are preserved various remains and two bastions that could protect the entrance to the castle.
The central core of the castle is made up of a rectangular enclosure of argamase tapial, in which the underground remains, possibly aljibes, are visible.
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