Castle Wedding Venues in Spain: 15 Real Castles You Can Book
Written by Jordi Dalmau, Spain destination wedding photographer. Last update July 2026
Every couple who writes to me about a castle in Spain is picturing the same thing: stone walls, a courtyard lit by candles, and a day that feels borrowed from another century. The complication is that most castles you find online are museums that never host a wedding, or hotels with one tower and a lot of imagination. This list only includes castles and fortified estates you can genuinely book. I have photographed weddings in five of them, and where I have not, I say so and I tell you exactly where each number comes from. So let’s get into it.
How did I choose these castles?
Every castle here takes real weddings, and every figure is attributed: to the venue’s own website, to its official directory listing, or to press coverage. Where a venue does not publish something, I say it is not published instead of inventing it.
That sounds obvious and it is not. The lists you will find for this search give you a price as one, two or three euro signs, capacity ranges that look scraped from a database, and no sources at all. At least two of them tell you that you can sleep at Castell de Sant Marcal and at Castillo de Batres, and both venues say otherwise on their own sites. If a page cannot get that right, you cannot budget from it.
I have photographed weddings at Castell de Tamarit, Castell de Peralada, Castell d’Emporda, Castell de Caramany and El Convent de Blanes, so for those five I also tell you how the light moves and where the day actually flows. For the rest I am reporting, not remembering, and the difference is marked.
Which castles in Spain can you book for a wedding?
| Castle | Where | Guests | Sleep on site | Price signal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castell de Tamarit | Tarragona coast | 80 to ~270 | No | €15,000-30,000 total* |
| Castell de Peralada | Alt Emporda | Up to 600 | Hotel 1 km, 64 rooms | Menus €230-450 pp* |
| Castell d’Emporda | La Bisbal, Girona | 40 to 200 | Yes, 57 rooms | Hire from €7,000* |
| El Convent de Blanes | Costa Brava | Up to 220 | No | From €131 pp |
| Castell de Caramany | Corca, Emporda | Up to 220 | No | Castle from €4,500 to €6,800 by season |
| Castell de Sant Marcal | 20 min from Barcelona | Up to 500 seated | No | On request |
| Parador de Cardona | Bages, 98 km from Barcelona | 100 to 150 | Yes, 54 rooms | Menus from €250 pp, exclusive pack from €200 pp* |
| La Fortaleza | Pollenca, Mallorca | 300 to 400 | Yes, 7 houses | Hire €40,000-50,000* |
| Cap Rocat | Bay of Palma | 180 to 200 | Yes, 30 suites | On request |
| Castillo de Batres | 30 min from Madrid | 200 min, up to 350 | No | Hire €8,500, menus from €162 pp* |
| Castillo de Vinuelas | 20 min from Madrid | Up to 550 | No | On request |
| Castillo de Almodovar | Cordoba | ~400 indoors | No | From €3,400* |
| Castillo de Santa Catalina | Malaga city | 30 to 100 seated | Yes, 22 rooms | On request |
| Castillo de Arteaga | Urdaibai, Biscay | 230 to 480 | Yes, 13 rooms | On request |
| Castillo del Buen Amor | Salamanca | Up to ~400 | Yes, 41 rooms | Whole castle €7,000/night* |
*Figures marked with an asterisk come from directory listings or press coverage rather than the venue itself. Details and sources in each entry below.
How much does a castle wedding in Spain cost?
Expect roughly 130 to 450 euros per guest depending on the castle, and full-day totals from around 15,000 euros at the accessible end to well over 100,000 at the top. The castle hire itself is rarely the biggest line: transport, lighting and flowers usually are.
The clearest published numbers on this list are worth knowing because almost nobody prints them. Castillo de Batres was hired for 8,500 euros for a Saturday in June 2024, with a 200-guest minimum and menus from 162 euros per person before tax, according to El Espanol’s coverage of Jaime Lorente’s wedding there. Castillo del Buen Amor publishes buyout rates: 7,000 euros for the whole castle for a night, 12,000 for a weekend.
The Parador de Cardona lists an exclusive-use package from 200 euros per person that includes rooms for the guests, the banquet and breakfast. Castell de Caramany publishes its own seasonal rates, from 4,500 euros in low season to 6,800 in summer for the whole castle for 24 hours. El Convent de Blanes starts at 131 euros per person, and Castell de Peralada lists menus from 230 to 450.
Two things drive the difference more than the building does: whether the venue is exclusively yours that day, and whether people can sleep there. A castle that solves accommodation is worth more than the price gap suggests, because it removes the shuttle problem that quietly eats castle-wedding budgets.
Where these figures come from: each venue’s published rates where they exist, official directory listings, and press coverage, each attributed in the entry. Prices move every season, so treat them as reference points and ask the venue for your own date. My guide to the best wedding venues in Spain covers the wider picture beyond castles.
1. Castell de Tamarit, Tarragona coast
Castell de Tamarit is a walled medieval compound on a promontory directly over the Mediterranean, ten minutes from Tarragona and about an hour from Barcelona. You take the whole enclosure, one wedding at a time, with the sea on three sides.
Inside the walls stands an 11th-century Romanesque church seating around 180, which makes this one of the very few places in Spain where a religious ceremony, the aperitif and the party all happen inside the same fortress. The estate was bought in 1916 by the American magnate Charles Deering and restored under the direction of the painter Ramon Casas, and Andres Iniesta married here in 2012. Its bodas.net listing puts the average total between 15,000 and 30,000 euros, with minimums of 80 guests midweek and 120 on Saturdays. Catering and coordination run exclusively through AG Planning, so external caterers are not an option.
I photographed a wedding here, and the thing that surprised me was the light: the walls hold the last hour of sun long after the cove below has gone into shadow.
Best for: couples who want a real castle with the Mediterranean underneath it.
Keep in mind: no accommodation on site, and the music curfew is not published, so confirm it with the team.
2. Castell de Peralada, Alt Emporda
Castell de Peralada is a 14th-century castle in the Alt Emporda that hosts weddings of up to 600 guests across five ceremony settings and eight hectares of historic gardens laid out by Francois Duvillers, with a five-star hotel one kilometre away.
This is where you look when the guest list is long and you refuse to compromise on the setting. Menus are listed from 230 to 450 euros per guest, the highest range on this list, and the kitchen is run by chef Paco Perez. One thing no other page tells you: you cannot rent the whole castle, because a restaurant, a casino and a museum operate inside it. What you rent are the gardens and the event spaces, which is plenty, but it changes what exclusivity means here.
Do the accommodation arithmetic early. The Hotel Peralada has 64 rooms for a venue that seats up to 600, and weddings over 100 guests get a complimentary wedding night there.
Best for: large weddings that still want a castle rather than a hotel ballroom.
Keep in mind: the gardens are historic, so decor is more restricted than you would expect at an estate.
3. Castell d'Emporda, La Bisbal
Castell d’Emporda is a restored 14th-century castle hotel near La Bisbal, in the inland Costa Brava, with 57 rooms, olive gardens, a stone hall, a castle courtyard and a pool terrace, built for weddings of 40 to 200 guests.
It is the most practical castle on this list, because you sleep where you marry. Everyone wakes up inside the walls, breakfast turns into the day-after gathering, and nobody drives anywhere. Exclusive use is possible but comes with a condition worth knowing: all rooms have to be occupied by your guests. There is a chapel, the Remei, for ceremonies, and a cave bar carved into the rock, the Cova del Drac, that gives you a party space looking nothing like the rest of the property. Salvador Dali tried to buy the castle for Gala in the 1970s and was refused because he offered artwork instead of cash.
Best for: destination couples who want the whole weekend in one place.
Keep in mind: capacity tops out at 200 and rooms are finite, so Fridays and Saturdays book far ahead.
4. El Convent de Blanes, Costa Brava
El Convent de Blanes is not a castle but a fortified Capuchin monastery from 1583, set on a cliff over the Mediterranean at the gateway to the Costa Brava, with catering by Jubany Events from 131 euros per person and ceremonies for up to 220 guests.
I include it because it answers the same wish for a fraction of the price. You get five centuries of stone, a garden of umbrella pines running to the cliff edge, and a round viewpoint over the water that does more for a ceremony than any decoration could. If the castle budgets above made you close the tab, start here.
Best for: couples who want old-stone drama without castle pricing.
Keep in mind: catering is exclusive to Jubany, so the menu is not open to negotiation.
5. Castell de Caramany, Corçà, Emporda
Castell de Caramany is a 15th-century castle in Corçà, in the Baix Emporda, 45 minutes from Barcelona and 20 from Girona, listed as a cultural asset of national interest and laid out like a French chateau with formal gardens. It takes up to 220 guests and it is the only venue on this list that publishes its own rates.
Those rates are worth quoting exactly, because published prices are rare in this market: from 4,500 euros in low season from November to March, 5,200 in April, May and October, and 6,800 from June to September. That buys the complete castle for 24 hours, the coordination team, private parking, basic furniture and planning advice. Catering is not included, and here is the part that matters: you bring your own caterer. After Tamarit’s exclusive arrangement and the four-chef closed list at Batres, that freedom is a genuine difference.
The ceremony choices scale with your guest list: the French gardens hold 300, the fountain courtyard 120, the interior halls 80. There is a cave that ends up being everyone’s favourite party space. I have photographed here many times, and the gardens at the end of the day are the reason why.
Best for: couples who want a chateau look with published prices and their own caterer.
Keep in mind: no accommodation inside the castle, and religious ceremonies happen at the church in Coçà rather than on site (just 5 minutes walking, easy entrance from the venue garden).
6. Castell de Sant Marcal, 20 minutes from Barcelona
Castell de Sant Marcal sits between Sant Cugat and Cerdanyola del Valles, 15 km and about 20 minutes from central Barcelona, with a moat, a drawbridge and a circular tower, rented whole and never shared.
The church here is documented in the early 11th century and the castle from the 12th, but the building you photograph today is largely the work of Gaieta Buigas, who dressed it in Catalan Gothic and Italian Renaissance detail in 1895. Buigas is the architect of the Columbus Monument in Barcelona, which tells you something about the theatrical instinct behind the place. It was declared a cultural property of national interest in 1949.
The venue publishes exact capacities per space, which almost no Spanish venue does: the Greenhouse, a 470 square metre glass room redesigned by Lazaro Rosa-Violan, seats 450 and holds 600 standing; the old wine Cellar seats 125; and the two hectares of gardens seat up to 500. Its own FAQ says there is no minimum guest count and no shared events. It also says, plainly, that you cannot sleep at the castle, which contradicts every listicle that claims otherwise.
Best for: a castle wedding twenty minutes from Barcelona with a glasshouse as a rain plan.
Keep in mind: no accommodation, and prices are quoted on request rather than published.
7. Parador de Cardona, Bages
The Parador de Cardona occupies a fortress founded in 886, 98 kilometres from Barcelona on a hill above the Cardener valley, with 54 rooms inside the walls and a whole-castle takeover for up to 150 guests. It is the only state-run castle on this list.
The history here is not decoration. The collegiate church of Sant Vicenc, built between 1029 and 1040, is one of the finest surviving examples of first Catalan Romanesque, and it stands inside the walls, so a religious ceremony never leaves the castle. The fortress was never taken in eleven centuries: it held out until 18 September 1714, after Barcelona itself had already fallen. Sant Vicenc was declared a national monument in 1931 and the rest of the ensemble in 1949.
Its bodas.net listing gives menus from 250 euros per guest and an exclusive-use package from 200 euros per person with a 100-guest minimum, which includes rooms for your guests, the banquet, two hours of open bar, breakfast, a DJ and a suite for the couple. For a whole castle with 54 bedrooms, that is the best exclusivity per euro on this list. Note that the figure of 100 euros you may see quoted is the entry price across all 30 Paradores, not Cardona’s.
Two things you will not find in a brochure. Orson Welles filmed Chimes at Midnight here in October 1964, using the ducal courtyard, the cloister and Sant Vicenc, and the town still runs a tour about it. And the cocktail-hour view includes a salt mountain, a genuine geological formation rising over 100 metres with nothing else like it in Europe, with Montserrat and the Pyrenees behind on a clear day.
Best for: a whole-castle weekend with a real Romanesque church, at a price that undercuts every comparable takeover here.
Keep in mind: catering is in-house and closed, and both price points come from its directory listing, so confirm them for your date.
8. La Fortaleza, Pollenca, Mallorca
La Fortaleza is a fortified estate built in 1628 to defend Pollenca from Berber raids, spread over the Punta Avancada peninsula with sea on nearly every side, roughly an hour from Palma. You hire the entire estate, and it hosts only a handful of events a year.
You have probably already seen it: this is Richard Roper’s villa in the BBC’s The Night Manager. The property runs to some 87,000 square metres with seven separate houses, two pools, private coves and a heliport, and the Argentine artist Roberto Ramauge restored the ruins after buying it in 1919.
Be careful with numbers here, because the estate publishes none. Planner sources between 2022 and 2025 report exclusive hire around 40,000 to 50,000 euros with bedrooms charged separately, and catering at 200 to 300 euros per guest, while capacity is quoted as both 300 and 400 depending on configuration. Treat all of that as third-party until the estate confirms it to you directly.
Best for: a private-island feeling without leaving Mallorca.
Keep in mind: the most guarded property on this list, and the least transparent about pricing.
9. Cap Rocat, Bay of Palma
Cap Rocat is a 19th-century military fortress on the Bay of Palma, a listed national monument converted into a 30-suite adults-only hotel without altering its architecture, hosting weddings of roughly 180 to 200 guests with exclusive use available.
Architecturally it is the most radical venue on this list. Rooms are carved into the rock, gun emplacements have become terraces, and a sea-water pool is cut into the cliff. One directory reports that there is no music curfew here, which would be remarkable in Mallorca, so it is exactly the kind of claim to confirm with the hotel rather than assume.
Best for: couples who want a fortress that looks like nothing else in Spain.
Keep in mind: adults only, and prices are quoted on request.
10. Castillo de Batres, 30 minutes from Madrid
Castillo de Batres is a Renaissance fortification with a 30-metre tower of homage, half an hour from Madrid in 80 hectares of countryside, where the poet Garcilaso de la Vega lived and wrote. It was declared a historic-artistic site in 1970 and takes up to 350 guests.
This is the best-documented price on the whole list. When Jaime Lorente married here in June 2025, El Espanol reported the castle hire at 8,500 euros for a Saturday in June 2024, with a 200-guest minimum and menus from 162 euros per person before tax, exclusive to your celebration, including two bridal suites, parking, security and event direction. Directory listings give a wider seasonal hire range of 3,000 to 7,500 euros, so the two disagree and you should ask which applies to your date.
Catering runs from a closed list of four: Paco Roncero, Ramon Freixa, Dani Garcia and Medems. The parade ground is glazed and climate controlled, which quietly solves the rain problem that haunts castle weddings.
Best for: a Madrid wedding with a covered medieval courtyard and Michelin-level catering.
Keep in mind: no guest accommodation, whatever other lists tell you, and a high guest minimum.
11. Castillo de Vinuelas, Madrid
Castillo de Vinuelas stands in the Soto de Vinuelas estate about twenty minutes from central Madrid, first recorded in 1285 though the building you see is 17th and 18th century, and takes up to 550 guests according to its operator.
What makes it unusual is the setting: a vast walled estate of holm oak and deer inside Madrid’s city limits, with a castle, a hunting pavilion and a third building each having its own gardens, indoor space and independent access, so a multi-part day works without anyone leaving. Hire is quoted separately from the menu and built to measure, so there are no published rates to compare.
Best for: a big Madrid wedding that still feels like the countryside.
Keep in mind: capacity claims vary widely between sources, so get yours in writing.
12. Castillo de Almodovar del Rio, Cordoba
Castillo de Almodovar del Rio is a hilltop fortress of Umayyad origin, founded around 740 and rebuilt through the 14th century, restored between 1901 and 1936, and it is the castle that played Highgarden in Game of Thrones.
The distinctive part is not the silhouette, it is the format. The castle works as a monument by day, so weddings run from about 20:30 to 05:00 with the castle closed exclusively for you. That means no daylight portraits and everything happening under torchlit battlements, which is either exactly what you want or exactly what you do not. Directory listings report a minimum from 3,400 euros and capacity around 400 inside, along with shuttle buses from the car park and a chapel among the spaces, though the official events page publishes neither prices nor capacities.
Best for: couples who want a night wedding inside a genuine Moorish-Gothic castle.
Keep in mind: the night-only window changes your whole timeline, and your photographer needs to be comfortable working in the dark.
13. Castillo de Santa Catalina, Malaga
Castillo de Santa Catalina sits on a clifftop over the Mediterranean inside Malaga city, an Arab-Renaissance palace built in 1932 for the Count of Mieres on the site of a 1624 fortress, now a boutique hotel with 22 rooms and suites.
It is the venue most often placed at the top of these lists, which is why the capacity is worth pinning down. The hotel’s own listing gives a banquet minimum of 30 and a maximum of 100, while other pages claim anywhere from 500 to 1,000. The higher figures almost certainly describe standing events across all 3,500 square metres of halls, gardens and terraces, not a seated dinner. If you are planning a banquet, plan around 100.
Best for: an intimate seated wedding with sea views and city logistics.
Keep in mind: the capacity numbers you find elsewhere are probably not for seated dinners.
14. Castillo de Arteaga, Urdaibai, Basque Country
Castillo de Arteaga is a neo-Gothic tower built in 1856 by the French architects Couverchef and Ancelet, commissioned by Napoleon III and Empress Eugenia de Montijo, standing in the heart of the Urdaibai Biosphere Reserve in Biscay, with 13 individually designed rooms.
I include it because no castle listicle for Spain covers the north properly, and it is a completely different palette: limestone and marble Gothic rising out of green Basque marshland instead of Mediterranean pine and stone. Catering is in-house through the Gaztelu Maitea restaurant. Capacities of 230, extendable to 330 and 480 depending on the rooms opened, come from directory listings rather than the castle, which publishes neither capacities nor rates.
Best for: couples who want green, wet, atmospheric north instead of the usual Mediterranean.
Keep in mind: almost nothing is published, so everything has to be confirmed directly.
15. Castillo del Buen Amor, Salamanca
Castillo del Buen Amor is a 15th-century castle about 27 km north of Salamanca, restored with its structure and period features intact, with 41 rooms and suites and a moat, and it publishes something almost nobody else does: buyout prices.
Half the castle for a night, 25 rooms, is listed at 5,000 euros; the whole castle, 40 rooms, at 7,000 for a night or 12,000 for a weekend. Those rates carry no stated year, so confirm them, but they are the clearest buyout figures I found anywhere in Spain, and they make a whole-castle weekend cost less than the venue hire alone at several places on this list. Breakfast is served in the 15th-century stables.
Best for: a genuine weekend takeover of an entire castle without a Mallorca budget.
Keep in mind: Castilian plain, so July and August are hot and the sky is enormous.
Can you rent a whole castle in Spain?
Yes, and it is more affordable than most couples assume. Castillo del Buen Amor near Salamanca publishes 7,000 euros for the whole castle for one night and 12,000 for a weekend, and Castell de Sant Marcal states in its own FAQ that the castle is rented whole and never shared.
The Parador de Cardona goes furthest: a whole 9th-century fortress with 54 bedrooms, from 200 euros per person including the rooms. Castell de Caramany publishes the clearest version of all: the complete castle for 24 hours, from 4,500 euros in low season.
The catch is that whole-castle means different things. At Castell d’Emporda, exclusive use requires your guests to fill all 57 rooms. At Castell de Peralada you cannot rent the castle at all, because a restaurant, a casino and a museum operate inside it, so what you take are the gardens and the event spaces. Before comparing any two quotes, ask how many weddings happen there that day, what time you have to be out, and whether anyone else is on the property.
Can you legally get married in a castle in Spain?
You can hold a religious ceremony in a castle that has a consecrated chapel, and a symbolic one anywhere. A civil ceremony with full legal effect normally happens at a town hall or registry and requires local residency paperwork, so most international couples handle the legal side at home and celebrate the ceremony they actually want inside the walls.
Three castles here have their own consecrated space: Castell de Tamarit, whose 11th-century Romanesque church seats around 180 inside the walls, Castell d’Emporda with the Remei chapel, and Castillo de Almodovar, which lists a chapel among its spaces. Everywhere else, plan a symbolic ceremony and enjoy the freedom that comes with it.
Which Spanish castle is right for you?
Choose Tamarit for the sea, Peralada for scale, Caramany for a chateau with published prices and your own caterer, Cardona, Castell d’Emporda or Buen Amor for sleeping inside the walls, Sant Marcal to stay near Barcelona, La Fortaleza or Cap Rocat for Mallorca, and Batres or Vinuelas for Madrid.
If I had to reduce it to one question, it would be this: does everyone sleep there or not. A castle with rooms turns a wedding into a weekend and removes the transport problem entirely. A castle without rooms can be more spectacular, Tamarit being the obvious case, but you are then running buses in the dark from a village with no taxis. Both work. They are just different weddings, and the budget lands in different places.
If you are still weighing regions rather than buildings, my guide to wedding venues in Spain compares 30 estates, and the Barcelona venues guide covers the ones within an hour of the city.
Frequently Asked Questions About Castle Weddings in Spain
How much does a castle wedding in Spain cost?
Roughly 130 to 450 euros per guest, with totals from around 15,000 euros to well over 100,000. Castillo de Batres was hired at 8,500 euros for a Saturday in June 2024 with menus from 162 euros per person, and Castillo del Buen Amor publishes 7,000 euros for the whole castle for a night. Castell de Caramany publishes 4,500 to 6,800 euros by season for the castle for 24 hours.
Is there a French chateau style wedding venue in Spain?
Castell de Caramany in the Baix Emporda is a 15th-century castle laid out like a French chateau, with formal French gardens, 45 minutes from Barcelona. It publishes rates from 4,500 to 6,800 euros by season for the whole castle for 24 hours, and you can bring your own caterer.
Can you rent an entire castle in Spain for a wedding?
Yes. Castillo del Buen Amor lists 7,000 euros for the whole castle per night and 12,000 for a weekend, and Castell de Sant Marcal is rented whole and never shared. At Castell de Peralada you cannot, because a restaurant, casino and museum operate inside the castle.
Which castle in Spain can you get married in by the sea?
Castell de Tamarit, a walled medieval compound on a promontory over the Mediterranean ten minutes from Tarragona, with the sea on three sides and an 11th-century church inside the walls. Cap Rocat, a fortress on the Bay of Palma, is the Mallorcan equivalent.
Which Spanish castles let your guests sleep on site?
Castell d’Emporda with 57 rooms, the Parador de Cardona with 54, Castillo del Buen Amor with 41, Cap Rocat with 30 suites, Castillo de Arteaga with 13 and La Fortaleza across seven houses. Castell de Peralada has no rooms in the castle but a 64-room hotel one kilometre away.
Can you have a religious ceremony in a Spanish castle?
Only where there is a consecrated chapel. Castell de Tamarit has an 11th-century Romanesque church seating around 180, Castell d’Emporda has the Remei chapel, the Parador de Cardona has the 11th-century collegiate church of Sant Vicenc inside its walls, and Castillo de Almodovar lists a chapel. Elsewhere couples hold a symbolic ceremony and do the legal paperwork at home.
How many guests fit in a castle wedding in Spain?
From 30 at Castillo de Santa Catalina to 600 at Castell de Peralada. Most castles sit between 100 and 250, which is the range where the setting still feels private rather than processional.
Which castle wedding venue is closest to Barcelona?
Castell de Sant Marcal, 15 km and about 20 minutes from the city centre, with a moat, a drawbridge and a 470 square metre glasshouse that seats 450.
When is the best time of year for a castle wedding in Spain?
May to June and September to early October. Stone courtyards hold heat in July and August, especially inland in Madrid, Salamanca and Cordoba, and the shoulder months give long evening light without the midday problem.
Planning a castle wedding in Spain?
I am Jordi Dalmau, a wedding photographer working across Spain, and I have photographed weddings inside five of the castles on this list. Tell me which one you are considering and I will tell you honestly what the day looks like there: the light, the timings and the parts nobody mentions.
About the Author:
Jordi Dalmau is a luxury wedding photographer based on the Costa Brava, Spain, working across Catalonia, Mallorca and Europe under the studio name Dalmare. His editorial, unposed style has been featured in The Wed, Carats and Cake, Wezoree and Hola.