Maqueda is a Spanish town located 80 kilometers from Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 and 45 kilometers from Toledo

Toledo, Spain

Toledo's Alcázar became renowned in the 19th and 20th centuries as a military academy. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 its garrison was famously besieged by Republican forces.-Economy:...

. Located within the autonomous community Castilla-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha

Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community of Spain. Castile-La Mancha is bordered by Castile and León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia, and Extremadura. It is one of the most sparsely populated of Spain's autonomous communities...

 and the province of Toledo

Toledo (province)

Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Ávila....

, Maqueda is located in the comarca of Torrijos

Torrijos

- People :*Omar Torrijos was a Panamanian army officer, de facto leader of Panama from 1968 to 1981, and co-negotiator of the Torrijos-Carter Treaties....

. The town is best known for its remarkably well-preserved castle, the Castillo de la Vela.

Etymology

The name "Maqueda" comes from the root mkd and the arabic term Maqqada, which means "stable", "firm", or "solid". Other experts believe that the name derives from the root kyd and the arabic term Makîda, which means "strategically located" or "strong plaza".

The castillo de la vela

The castillo de la vela, also known as the castillo de Maqueda is located on the outskirts of town. Originally of Moorish design, the castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

 was rebuilt and expanded during the 15th century. It was eventually appropriated by the state, which established a Guardia Civil post within the castle and provided for its future conservation

Conservation movement

The conservation movement, also known as nature conservation, is a political, environmental and a social movement that seeks to protect natural resources including animal, fungus and plant species as well as their habitat for the future....

.

The castle is rectangular in shape and sits on two distinct elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

s. The castle's protections include 3.5-meter-thick walls, moat

Moat

A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...

s on two sides, and a number of circular tower

Tower

A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....

s. The exterior of the castle is free to visit, though visitors are not permitted to enter the castle proper.

The castle was declared an artistic historical monument

Monument (Spain)

The current legislation regarding historical monuments in Spain dates from 1985. However, Monumentos nacionales were first designated in the nineteenth century. It was originally a fairly broad category for national heritage sites protecting, for example, the Alhambra...

on 3 June 1931.