Peñalcázar, Abandoned village and fortress in Quiñonería, Soria, Spain

Peñalcázar is an abandoned village and fortress in the municipality of Quiñonería, Soria, Castile and Leon, on an isolated rocky mesa at 1,212 metres. The site keeps stretches of its defensive wall and the ruined Gothic-Renaissance church of San Miguel (15th century), whose tower stands but whose bells were stolen; the roof has largely collapsed, though some Gothic ribbed vaulting remains. Ruins of an 18th-century chapel also survive.

Peñalcázar was a Celtiberian settlement, later Roman Centóbriga, and by the 10th century the Muslim fortress Al-qasr. In 974 Count García Fernández of Castile conquered it. In 1842 it was a municipality with 65 households and 266 inhabitants; in 1979 it was merged into Quiñonería.

The name Peñalcázar comes from the Arabic Al-qasr, meaning fortress, reflecting the Moorish past visible in the site's foundation. The ruins of the San Miguel church with its Gothic-Renaissance style show the spiritual importance this mountain settlement held for those who once lived here.

Access is by the N-234 road (Calatayud–Soria), turning off toward Reznos and passing through Quiñonería. From there the last stretch to the top of the rocky mesa is on foot only; no vehicle reaches the village. The site lies at 1,212 m, where strong wind blows and vegetation is scarce, so carry water and wear footwear suited to stony ground.

The mines of Peñalcázar lie about 3 km south of the village, in the spots called El Estrepal and Monte de las Minas. From 1845 the Nuestra Señora de la Peña mine was worked by the Buen Deseo 1ª de Almazán company, which extracted some 8,000 tonnes of ore until 1876; the ore was argentiferous galena, with sphalerite, chalcopyrite and bournonite as minor components. A mining settlement housed over a hundred workers, and the La Cruz foundry was built, but both stopped in 1877 for lack of raw material.