Alakazam! It’s an Alcazar!!

There are five Alcazars — a Spanish-Moorish castle — in Spain, which some say inspired the Magic Castles at Disneylands. We recently visited the Alcazar of Segovia, built in the 12th century, and favorite home of the monarchs of Castille, and it is magical to this day.

Alcazar of Segovia

The others are: The Alcazar of Seville, dating to the 1360’s, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where we visited in 2007; the Alcazar of Toledo, which received later fame in the Siege of the Alcazar during the Spanish Civil War; the Alcazar of Madrid, which following a fire in 1734 was rebuilt as the Royal Palace of Madrid on the same site; and the Alcazar of Cordoba, 13th century Moorish castle, once home of the largest library in the Western world, and home of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, where they met with Columbus before his journey to the west. Columbus is now interred in the cathedral there, where we also visited in 2007.