The 5 best castles near Segovia, ranked
Brick towers and a deep dry moat at a Mudejar castle in Segovia province
Five fortresses within roughly an hour of the aqueduct, ranked by what actually survives inside the walls rather than how photogenic they look from the road.
How I ranked them
The order below rewards interiors. Segovia province has dozens of towers and wall fragments, but only a handful let you climb a keep, walk a parapet or stand in a room with a ceiling still on it. So the ranking weights four things: how much of the inside you can see, whether the visit is guided or self-guided, what the surrounding village adds once the castle closes, and drive time from Segovia. Tickets at province castles typically sit in the €3-7 band, with guided tours at the upper end. Opening days are set locally and change season to season, so confirm with the town hall or tourist office before you drive.
The Alcazar is excluded because it sits inside the city, costs more than the rest put together with the tower climb added, and needs no argument from me. Everything below needs a car. Bus links exist to some of these towns, but timetables are built for residents rather than day-trippers, and an afternoon return is rarely there. Reckon on €45-60 a day for a small hire car plus fuel, and remember that these are single-lane regional roads: the SG and CL numbers look fast on a map and are not. Two castles a day is comfortable, three is a slog.
1. Coca: the best brick castle in Spain, and it isn’t close
Coca sits about 50 km north-west of Segovia, reached by the CL-601 towards Santa Maria la Real de Nieva and then minor roads through the pine belt, roughly 50 minutes. What you get is a Mudejar fantasy in ochre brick, built for the Fonseca family from the 1470s, ringed by a dry moat deep enough to make you step back from the edge. Nobody was defending anything with this thing; the arrow slits are decorative geometry and the merlons are pastry work. The visit is short and guided, tickets are usually a few euros, and slots can be limited on winter afternoons.
Coca rewards the extra half-hour of driving because the town gives you a second act: the Torre de San Nicolas in Mudejar brick, remains of the Roman walls of ancient Cauca, and a claim on the emperor Theodosius. Lunch is roast lamb country here rather than suckling pig, with menus around €25-35 a head at the village asadores. Go in morning light if you want the brick to burn orange in photographs; the western face takes the late sun. If you can only do one castle in the province and you have wheels, this is the one.
2. Turegano: a church growing out of a fortress, 35 minutes away
Turegano is 34 km north of Segovia on the CL-603, an easy half-hour that makes it the best value in the province. The oddity is the plan: the church of San Miguel is inside the castle enclosure, its bell gable rising over the battlements, because the bishops of Segovia held the place and simply built their parish church into their stronghold. Antonio Perez, Philip II's disgraced secretary, was held here in the 1580s. Entry is usually around €3, the walk round the walls takes 40 minutes, and the views run over rolling grain country to the sierra.
The village below does most of the work of turning this into a morning out. The porticoed Plaza Mayor sits directly under the castle rock, with wooden posts, a couple of bars and roast lamb served from wood-fired ovens at around €25-30 a head. Combine Turegano with Pedraza, 30 km east, and you have a complete day without ever joining a motorway. If you are visiting with children who have already sat through two churches, this is the castle that wins them back: there is space to run, a real gate to walk through and no glass cases.
3. Cuellar: the biggest interior, and a town that surprises
Cuellar is 60 km north of Segovia, around 55 minutes. The castle of the Dukes of Alburquerque is the largest habitable fortress in the province, and the visit is properly guided: courtyards, a Renaissance gallery, the ducal rooms and a route along parts of the walls. Expect around €6 for the standard tour, more for themed or evening visits, which run seasonally. Because the tour is timed and staffed, this is the castle where you learn most and see least of it on your own terms; if you dislike guided pacing, drop it to fourth.
Cuellar also has the best town of the five. There is a substantial ring of medieval walls, a run of Mudejar brick churches, and a pine-forest economy that has fed the place for centuries. The last week of August brings the encierros, bull-runs documented here since the thirteenth century and generally described as the oldest in Spain, when beds within 30 km disappear and prices climb hard. Any other week, Cuellar is quiet enough to park on the street. Give it a full day with lunch rather than squeezing it alongside Coca, which lies 30 km to the south-west.
4. Pedraza: the castle is the least of it
Pedraza is 37 km north-east of Segovia, about 40 minutes. Honest ranking: the castle itself is the weakest interior on this list. The painter Ignacio Zuloaga bought the ruin in the 1920s and turned part of it into a studio, and what you visit today is essentially a small Zuloaga museum inside a shell, usually around €6 and with restricted opening days that lean towards weekends. Check before committing the drive. If you arrive on a closed afternoon you will not be heartbroken, because you have not really come for the castle.
You have come for the village, which is entered through one gate, has no modern building inside it, and delivers a stone Plaza Mayor that photographs itself. The old jail can be visited for a token fee, the walk out to the Mirador de Tungueros takes 15 minutes, and the asadores serve lamb from clay dishes at €28-35 a head. On the first Saturdays of July, the candle concerts fill the streets with thousands of flames and the village sells out months ahead. Pedraza on a Tuesday in November is a completely different, emptier and arguably better experience.
5. Castilnovo, plus two ruins worth the detour
Castilnovo, near Villafranca and about 40 km from Segovia, is the wildcard: a low, wide Mudejar castle in brick and stone, privately held for most of its modern life, with opening arrangements that have come and gone. Never drive there on spec. Check the current arrangement first; when it is open, guided access to the patio and towers is worth an hour, and when it is not, you have wasted 80 minutes of road. That uncertainty is why it ranks fifth despite being architecturally more interesting than half the province.
Two ruins deserve a stop if they fall on your route. Fuentidueña, 70 km north, keeps its hilltop walls and the church of San Miguel; the apse of its ruined church of San Martin was dismantled and now stands in the Cloisters museum in New York, which is a strange thing to contemplate from the empty hillside. Sepulveda, 60 km north, has gates, wall stretches and the eleventh-century church of El Salvador above the gorge. Neither charges much, if anything. Both work better as add-ons than as the reason for the day.
How to combine them, and what to skip
Two clean itineraries. North-east day: Turegano mid-morning, lunch in Pedraza, then either the Duraton gorge at Sepulveda or straight back, about 110 km of driving in total. North-west day: Coca at opening, lunch in Coca or Nava de la Asuncion, Cuellar in the afternoon, roughly 140 km. Do not attempt Coca and Pedraza on the same day; they sit on opposite sides of the province and you will spend three hours in the car looking at grain. If you have a single free day and no car, stay in the city and climb the Alcazar tower instead.
What to skip: the roadside towers signposted as castillos that turn out to be a single wall behind a locked gate, and any evening themed tour you have not booked, because they cap numbers and sell out. Skip Castilnovo unless you have confirmation in writing or by phone. And skip the temptation to see all five in a weekend. Three castles is the point at which crenellations stop registering; two plus a long lunch is the version you will remember. If forced to pick one for a first visit with a car, book Coca.
Before you book
The questions people ask about Segovia, answered with this month’s numbers.
Cuellar and Turegano have regional bus services from Segovia, but frequencies are low and afternoon returns are unreliable for a day trip. Coca, Pedraza and Castilnovo are effectively car-only. Check current timetables with the operator before planning; otherwise hire a car for roughly €45-60 a day.
Turegano. It is the shortest drive at 34 km, the enclosure is open enough for children to move around, the church-inside-a-castle plan is genuinely odd enough to hold attention, and the porticoed square below has bars with outdoor tables while the adults finish their vermouth.
For two people: around €25-35 for car hire share and fuel, €6-14 in entry tickets, and €50-70 for a roast lamb lunch with wine at a village asador. A day covering two castles and one long lunch lands near €100 for the pair, less if you picnic.
Many close one weekday and shorten hours between November and February, and several are run by small local associations rather than a regional body, so schedules vary site by site. Always confirm the day and the last admission time with the town hall or local tourist office before driving.
