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La Mota Castle is a castle located in the town of Medina del Campo, (Valladolid, Spain). Isabel la Católica spent her last days in this castle. Construction began in 1440 by order of the Fonseca family, on the corner of an old Arab enclosure. It consists of two rooms, and its interior is accessed through an imposing drawbridge. It is cataloged as an Asset of Cultural Interest.
In the 16th century the castle became a state prison and different figures were detained there, such as Hernando Pizarro, Rodrigo Calderón, Duke Fernando of Calabria, César Borgia and Count Aranda. Perhaps the most notable event is the escape of César Borgia, the so-called Duke Valentino, an intriguing character in the hectic political life of the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, and whom the Great Captain took prisoner in Naples, sending him first to the castle of Chinchilla, in the province of Albacete, from where he tried to escape by means of a stratagem. After the failed coup, the Catholic King ordered his transfer to the castle of La Mota.
The fortress of La Mota (1476-83), together with that of the castle of Coca, must be considered among the best of its time in Europe, at the same level as others, such as the French one of Dijon (c. 1480) and above the Italian ones of Mondavio (c. 1488) and Ostia (c. 1483) which have traditionally been considered the most advanced of their time.
The most unique element of the Mota Castle is the entrance body, with its defensive courtyard, its large lower vaulted room - the true heart of the underground defenses - and the impressive dungeon beneath it. A staircase recovered in the latest restorations allows access from the patio to the underground chamber and from this, bordering the dungeon, you reach the postern that allowed you to go down to the moat.
The drawbridge of this entrance body swung on a diaphragm arch, now reconstructed, and rested on the inside of a free-standing bastion in the middle of the moat and which the latest works have partially recovered. The castle has a characteristic reddish color in its brick that blends with the reddish tone of the terrain.
