Cuéllar Castle or Dukes of Alburquerque's Castle is the most emblematic monument in the town of Cuéllar.
It is conserved in good conditions and it has been built by different architectural styles from 13th century to 18th century, but mainly in Gothic and Renascence styles. It is a military building that from 16th century was extended and transformed, turning it into a sumptuous palace property of the Duke of Alburquerque. On its different building stages, masters as Juan Guas, Hanequin of Brussels and her son Hanequin de Cuéllar, Juan and Rodrigo Gil de Hontañón, as well as Juan Gil de Hontañón "el mozo" or Juan de Álava among others, worked on it.
Among its historical owners, stands out Álvaro de Luna and Beltrán de la Cueva, as well as the successive Dukes of Alburquerque. Distinguished guests on it were some Castilian monarchs, as Juan I and his wife the Queen Leonor de Aragón y de Sicilia, that died on it, or María de Molina, that took refuge on this castle when her Kingdom was rejecting her. Also stands out figures as the painter Francisco Javier Parcerisa, or the writer José de Espronceda, the generals Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo and Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington, who set his garrison barracks in this castle during the Spanish War of Independence.
Dukes of Alburquerque used to live in this castle along centuries, till they move to Madrid for be close to the court. Then, the use of the castle by them was as leisure and holidays palace, abandoning the building slowly. At the late 19th century the castle was almost completely abandoned, and was victim of robberies. In 1938 was a political prison was settled within the castle, and after was established also a sanatorium for prisoners affected by tuberculosis. It was used as prison till 1966.
In 1972, the General Direction of Fine Arts carried out and intensive restoration, settling on it a Vocational Education school, use that nowadays still remains on it.