The Castle of Villaviciosa de Odón is a palace-fortress complex located in the small town of the same name near Madrid, Spain. The first construction on the site dates to the 15th century by the Counts of Chinchón, with the first castle built in 1496 by the Marquis of Moya, Andrés Cabrera y Beatriz Fernández de Bobadilla. In 1583, don Diego Fernández de Cabrera y Bobadilla commissioned the royal architect Juan de Herrera to reconstruct the castle, who designed one tower differently to give the building an asymmetric profile.
In 1738, King Philip V of Spain purchased the county and granted the castle to his son, the infante Luis. Luis commissioned Ventura Rodríguez to restore the castle and gave the locality its present name. Following the death of his wife in 1758, Ferdinand VI moved to the fortress where he died the following year. The castle also served as the site for Spain's first forestry school, the Escuela de Especial de Ingenieros de Montes, which was established there in the 1840s before relocating in 1870.
In 1808, the castle served as a prison for the prime minister Manuel Godoy after he was dismissed following the Mutiny of Aranjuez. The building was sacked and taken by both sides during the Spanish Civil War. Today, the castle belongs to the government and houses the Archives of the Spanish Air Force.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nik Frost
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