Castle Day, part 2

This is the doorway of the alcazár of Calatrava La Vieja. The name means "old Calatrava", and the word itself derives from the Arabic Qalat Ribat. A ribat is a frontier monastery where people devoted to the physical jihad could live and fight.

Calatrava was captured by Alfonso VII in 1147, who gave it to the Templars to occupy. The Templars were reluctant to occupy themselves with the troubles of defending the Castillian frontier, but made an attempt to hold the fortress. They built a tiny round chapel inside the castle, perhaps in imitaion of the Holy Sepulcher. However, after a few brief years, the Templars asked to be excused from duty at Calatrava.

In 1158, the responsibility passed to a monk named Raymond from the Cistercian monastery of Fitero took up the challenge of defending the sight. He organized a garrison, and got permission from the church to organize his men into a monastic order of knights on the model of the Templars. Thus the Order of Calatrava was born.

The Knights held Calatrava and used it as their headquarters for raiding the countryside of La Mancha. They held it until 1195, when it was captured by the Almohads in the aftermath of the defeat at Alarcos. The castle was not recaptured until 1212, during the Las Navas campaign. However, due to the changed strategic situation after that victory, the Knights decided to build a new fortress for themselves several miles to the south, closer to the frontier with Al-Andalus.