It was built as a fortress in the 10th century. Later, it was transformed into the Civil Guard District. It will soon be a four-star country hotel. The Ministry of the Interior was able to sell the castle that stood in the town of Maceda (Toledo, 504 inhabitants) – colloquially known as the Castle. Tricorn Castle Which was declared an art-historical monument in 1931―and which he has been trying to get rid of since 2013 to build a fund.
The buyer is the Canary company América de Construcciones y Turismo SL (Amcotur), which will pay 3.25 million euros for the stronghold with the aim of converting it into a hotel establishment with the commitment to rehabilitate and preserve both the existing internal walls and foundations, as confirmed by sources from the Fernando Grande Marlaska province.
The price the company – which owns five other hotels, including one tucked into another castle, in the Burgundian town of Olmelos de Sassamone – will pay is less than the 7.4 million euros the government invested in one day to build a modern building in the Armory Square. A garden with three plants and an attic with a built-up area of 3,060 square meters to house the archive and permanent museum of the Armed Institute. This is the modern structure that Amcotur intends to use as a hotel. The sale, which was agreed directly on October 28 without resorting to sopasta, will be formalized in the next few days with the company in front of a notary once the hotel company pays the amount of 162,710 euros, according to details from one of the sources consulted. Currently, the property is still for sale on the ministry’s website. This diary has tried to contact the hotel company to no avail.
The sale of Castillo de Maqueda – also known as Castillo de la Vela – was unfortunate. In 2001, the then government of José María Aznar began work on redesigning this castle, located in Otovia de Extremadura, 75 kilometers from Madrid, to transform it into the headquarters of the Historical Archive of the Civil Guard. After the Socialist Workers’ Party won the 2004 elections, the plan became more ambitious. The new Director General of the Armed Institute, General Carlos Gomez Arroche, emphasized that in addition to storing the archives, he also established the Museum of Mortuaries and stored the institution’s abundant historical funds.
However, plans to convert it into an archive and museum were foiled, when in fact they managed to install some paintings and display cabinets inside it. They were frustrated by the economic crisis of 2008, and in July 2013, CEO Mariano Rajoy included Castillo de Maqueda on a list of 15,135 public real estate assets that it had put up for sale to raise funds. Since then, he has succeeded in removing public sopastas on new occasions through the Department of Infrastructure and the Equipamiento de la Seguridad del Estado (Giese, of the Interior).
The first time, in September 2014, the interior company was looking to make money selling the castle, and estimated the sale price at $9.58 million, more than $2 million above the cost of the remodeling work. The attractive factor was that the plot of land was intended for residential, commercial, public, semi-public, hotel or leisure use, in accordance with municipal regulations, and was therefore vulnerable to conversion into apartments or tourist accommodation. However, I did not drive past the building.
After this first failure, in the second sub-season, in October 2015, Interior reduced the exit price to 7.47 million (with an option to reduce it to 6.73 million). But I sold it too. In September 2016, it tried again for a much lower price: 5.9 million. Since then, the price has continued to fall at successive subsistence levels until it hit the ground running in March 2022, when it was offered for €2.76 million. No one cared after that. In August 2023, Interior raised the price to 3.25 million. That’s how precious it is to keep the last known subasta in the past tense. Now, direct sales to the hotel group have become available for this very important reason, according to Interiors, which is “the price of the fee without anyone discounting it.”
Andres Congosto, Mayor of Maceda, confirms in a telephone conversation with this diary that he has no information about the sale, although he admits that in recent months, several companies, including some hotels, have been in contact with the Council to see if it is possible to carry out renovations in the building located in the Armory Square. Congosto says that in recent years he has maintained contacts with Minister Fernando Grande Marlasca, with the President of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García Peg, and with officials from the State Secretariat of Democratic Memory to find a use for memory. “We always have good words, but a little more,” if you like.
He added: “We always ask that it be useful, that it be a museum, a hotel, or a conference center, so that it becomes a tourism and economic revolution for the region.” His other big request was to be able to visit the interior of the building, which is currently impossible because it is closed. “Because it’s close to the highway, a lot of people stop by to visit and find they can’t because it’s closed,” says Congusto, which means the castle is in excellent condition because when someone has something missing, the Interior Ministry is tasked with fixing it.
Currently, Giese is selling other buildings, including old houses belonging to the Civil Guard in Blanes (Girona, for €250,000); In Linares (Jaén, for 1.3 million euros) and in Torreles de Foix (Barcelona, for 290,000 euros); The old customs office in Valencia de Alcantara (Cáceres) for more than 50 thousand euros; The building housing Comisaría Calatayud (Zaragoza, for €320,000).
About The Author
