Pancorbo Castle, Medieval fortress in Pancorbo, Spain.
Pancorbo Castle, also called Santa Marta or La Sala, is a 9th-century fortress built on a rocky crest above Pancorbo. Only a few ruins remain: stretches of wall, holes cut into the rock to anchor stairways, and a bridge between two crags.
Count Diego Porcelos built the fortress shortly before 882 to guard the entrance to the Pancorbo gorge. In 882 and 883 the armies of emir al-Mundir besieged it for three days without success. Sancho III of Navarre held it from 1028 through the Fortuniones family, and it returned briefly to Navarre in 1129. Carlist troops burned it on 10 August 1835.
The castle is also called Santa Marta or La Sala. In 1679 the retinue of Marie Louise d'Orléans, travelling to marry Charles II, passed through Pancorbo, and a French member of the party wrote a description of the fortress. The site is now known mainly for the rock bridge between two crags.
The site is reached via marked hiking trails that begin from Pancorbo town and remain accessible year-round without charge. Visitors can walk these paths at their own pace and explore the ruins on foot.
The sources record no radar surveys; what survives is visible instead: holes cut into the rock to anchor stairways, and a bridge spanning two crags. In 1679 a French author travelling with the retinue of Queen Marie Louise of Orléans, on her way to marry Charles II, described the castle.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,628 contributors worldwide.