

Restoration of the moat of the Torreón de Arroyomolinos
Consolidation works on the northern escarpment-pit
The Torreón de Arroyomolinos is a rectangular building with rounded corners on the outside, dating back to the Late Middle Ages. It was started around 1470 by Juan de Oviedo and was probably finished in the same decade by Gonzalo Chacón. It stands on a stone plinth, while the rest of the building is built of brick, giving it a rather sober appearance.
One of the building resources common to all these castles was the existence of a defensive perimeter around a square courtyard. This perimeter was made up of a wall that descended vertically like a cliff until it reached the bottom of the moat that surrounded it. It is built of solid brick joined with lime and sand mortar in Gothic-Mudejar style, following a style and construction technique similar to the nearby castles of Casarrubios del Monte and Batres.
As an archaeological or paleontological site declared a Site of Cultural Interest, this defensive complex is documented and the entire immediate surroundings of the tower have been the subject of various archaeological interventions and restorations from 1987 to 2007. The archaeological campaigns represented a change in the understanding of the tower, confirming that it was a main element within the fortified enclosure as part of a larger defensive system equipped with a moat and other small towers.
restoration project
The state of conservation of the northern scarp and ditch was very degraded due to the detachment of ceramic elements and excessive vegetation growth, so intervention was necessary to prevent its progressive deterioration.
The aim of the project was to consolidate and restore the northern escarpment-moat located in front of a landscaped square connected to the Plaza Mayor. The importance that this front has acquired after the archaeological excavations and restorations is due to the fact that it currently constitutes one of the accesses to the fortification.
The objectives of the intervention were to ensure stability in the event of some ceramic or quartzite pieces falling off, to preserve the existing remains and eliminate the additions, and to improve the urban environment by giving greater visibility to the escarpment.
In this sense, the restoration work substantially preserves the typological, volumetric and morphological characteristics that the complex has today.
The restoration was planned in two phases. The first phase involved work on the escarpment and its crest, and the second phase involved work on the ditch. During this first phase, scaffolding was used, which spanned the entire length of the escarpment, and during the second phase, without scaffolding, work was carried out on the ditch. The works included the following interventions:
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Manual stump removal and vegetation clearing in the pit, scarp and counterscarp to prevent the disintegration of the construction material and the detachment of ceramic pieces.
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Cleaning the scarp with a herbicide treatment of the vertical face and crown with the aim of destroying and preventing new colonisations of lichens and microorganisms on ceramic, stone and mortar materials. The original patinas have been respected. In parallel with the application of the herbicide product, manual cleaning was carried out with brushes.
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Removal of mortar at coronation which was detached and in bad condition.
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Grouting and pointing: repair of brickwork and cleaning of joints. Given the different degrees of erosion of the ceramic pieces, the intervention did not seek to replace them, but to clean them and preserve them appropriately. The northern escarpment is an element with an important historical and architectural significance, and these pieces continue to fulfill their constructive function, while exemplifying the image of the passage of time on the defensive complex. The mortars and grouts used have been compatible with the originals and the quartzite edges recovered from the ditch and those removed after the cleaning operations have been reused.
- Reinforced with fiberglass rods and cavity filling.
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Repair of the brick factory at the coronation we was in a very irregular condition along its entire length.
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Patinated to achieve a chromatic balance between the original mortar and the new mortar.
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Protection through water repellency to prevent water from seeping into the escarpment.
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Excavation of the pit, establishment of levels and execution of new pavement.