The Castell de Guadalest

From then until the expulsion of the Moriscos, it retained an abundant Islamic population under the lordship of different Aragonese nobles.

King James II of Aragon granted the Castle of Guadalest as a fief to Bernardo de Sarrià in 1293, and here began a period of 42 years, during which the castle and the whole region would come to belong to the Sarrià family.

In 1335, the Castle passed to the Crown, which sold it to the Infante Don Pedro and from him to his son, the first Duke of Gandía, and upon the death of the last Royal Duke of Gandía, to the Cardona family. The Cardonas became Admirals of Aragon and in 1543 Charles I granted Sancho de Cardona, for himself and his successors in perpetuity, the title of Marquises of Guadalest.

On 22 June 1644, an earthquake destroyed the Castle and in December of the same year, another tremor of great intensity occurred again.

The last Cardona, Marquis of Guadalest, died without descendants in 1699, and this caused a series of problems that ended when the marquisate fell upon the person of the Marquis of Ariza.

During the Cardona era, another family gained great relevance, the Orduña family, perpetual castle governors since 1669 and nobles since 1756, when Don Pedro Antonio Buenaventura de Orduña y García entered the Order of Santiago.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, in 1708, the Castle of San José suffered a blast that seriously affected its west wing, and the Casa Orduña was set on fire.

Already in the 20th century, Guadalest underwent a series of important changes: in 1953 the construction of the reservoir began, which would be completed in 1971. In 1974, Guadalest was declared a Historic-Artistic Complex.

The Marquisate of Guadalest currently belongs to Don Roberto Sánchez-Ocaña y Arteaga, as can be seen in the Elenco de Grandezas y Títulos Nobiliarios Españoles.