Ciudad Rodrigo Castle

Although Ciudad Rodrigo Castle is known by the name of Henry II of Trastámara, it was actually Ferdinand II of León who ordered the original fortification built on this site. Henry II ordered its reconstruction in 1372, commissioning the work to Zamora-born architect Lope Arias Jenízaro. Given its frontier position near Portugal, the castle was attacked on numerous occasions throughout the medieval conflicts that beset Castile and León.

The Parador opened its doors on 23 April 1931 — the fourth in the entire network, just three years after the opening of the first Parador at Gredos, making it one of the chain's founding historic establishments.

Today its rooms sit within the medieval fortress.

The castle's confusing dual naming — popularly attributed to Henry II despite the original fortification predating him under Ferdinand II of León — reflects how the more consequential 1372 reconstruction came to overshadow the site's earlier origins in popular memory.

The Parador's 1931 opening, just three years after the chain's founding property at Gredos, gives Ciudad Rodrigo genuine historical standing among the earliest establishments in the entire Parador network.

The castle's frontier position near the Portuguese border, and its repeated attacks throughout medieval Castilian-Leonese conflicts, give it a documented military history distinct from more purely residential Spanish castle-hotels.