The Castle of Chulilla surprised us with its beauty. Not the castle itself, as there is not much left from it, but the views. Magnificent views, wherever we looked left me in awe. Do you know that feeling? I could not know how to explain it in words, but I was so happy to be there, at that moment, sharing it with our friends.
That was the day when the coin was flipped, several times to decide where would we go and what would we do. In case you don't know that story, you can check it here when we visited the village and here, a walking route in nature.
The castle visit was not planned either. But when we finished the walking route around Charco Azul and rested a bit in the shade, we gained the last atoms of our energy and adventured ourselves to climb up. To the ruins of that fortress.
Following the signs in the village where to find the route to the fortress, we were still asking ourselves. Do we have enough energy to do all of this? Somehow we didn't allow the doubts to attack with more power but scared them away with our jokes. It is always easier to achieve a goal if you are in a good company. So slowly, we were on the right path and started to see the walls of the fortress, growing from the rocks.
Actually, the walls are in the best condition, it is in a well-conserved state. It is a long but narrow fortress, built already in the times of the Roman empire, but the actual visible parts of the whole complex are re-built later, in the age of Christianity.
At this point the climbing became interesting. We found ourselves in the past, walking on that path, inside of the fortress, surrounded by the tall walls gave that special feeling. As a history lesson, but seeing and feeling that history with our own eyes. Walking through it with our own feet.
The holes in the walls served for observing the enemy. This area was a place many wanted to conquer. The village is surrounded by the river, which also means having fertile lands, and the good position of the fortress made this place great for the defence.
We arrived at the main entrance, which was impressive for me. It had a gate too, but it was destroyed in the battles at the beginning of the 19th century. As the majority of the buildings too. We can see just the ruins and some of the walls that have withstood the test of time and battles.
As I mentioned, the buildings and the castle that once stood here are not conserved. We just saw the ruins of some of the facilities and at the end of the walking route in this fortress, there was the only conserved wall with two windows facing the valleys. It gave breathtaking views, though.
From this point, we could observe the village and its medieval structure. The streets and the houses that are descending towards the river Turia.
At the end of the fortress, we came to the main area of the castle. There was a tower that looked directly to the river and above it, there was another corner tower. I climbed to one of the windows. Maybe they seem not that big, but in reality, they were. I looked down and at that moment I was so scared. It was very high. You practically see the whole valley.
I sat down to be safer and spent some time there. Alone. It was just wonderful. The feeling, something just extraordinary. Later I made a video, to try to record what the photography can not show.
My son went to the other northern part of the fortress, where the river and the canyon can be seen. He liked it and waved to me to come to see, so I left my friends to rest and climbed to that northern part. It was also amazing, though a completely different view.
After some time spent there, filling my soul with all that landscape, we had to go back. We had to walk again through the village and walk on the road to reach the car (that we parked by the road... who read my previous posts knows that we didn't find any free parking space so we parked just by the road).
The photos maybe don't do justice, as the place has to be seen and felt. I recorded some video footage from there, what the views were like, not to forget this place. My memory of this Castle-fortress is still fresh, we visited it maybe a month ago, but I would like to refresh my memory even when more time passes. Another option not to forget the experience is to visit this fortress again, one day.
