Segovia · Spain

Alcázar de Segovia

HistoricMuseum photo spotgoogle verified

easy

9/10

best: morning

fairy-tale, historic, dramatic

A local would say...

This is the actual castle that Walt Disney based Sleeping Beauty's castle on — you're walking around someone else's childhood dream made stone.

With its Rapunzel towers, turrets topped with slate witch-hat roofs and a deep moat at its base, the Alcázar is the prototype fairy-tale castle — so much so that its design inspired Walt Disney's vision of Sleeping Beauty's castle. Fortified since Roman days, the site takes its name from the Arabic al-qasr (fortress) and was rebuilt in the 13th and 14th centuries before burning to the ground in 1862 and being rebuilt again.