The Muslim occupation of Iberia, begun in the year 711, saw the building of a much larger fortress on the remains of the ancient Roman castellum.

A mirador (lookout point) was built onto the hall, as an internal balcony or loggia open to the air with four foliated Gothic arches.

[8] The front of the building, and the viewpoint, faces the northwest and looks over the extensive flat valley of the Rio Tiétar, which flows through the Campo Arañuelo, and beyond that the fertile foothills of La Vera and the Sierra de Gredos.

[10] They are known to have worked together on a number of prominent Spanish buildings, including the Alcázar of Segovia and El Escorial,[9][11] so it is possible they collaborated in the design of the New Palace.

It was built of padded ashlar stone and the second storey featured large windows crowned by triangular pediments on each of the seven faces.

It was more complex in presentation, with a number of blocks of differing dimensions projecting eastwards, and northwards to connect with the western end of the Old Palace.

The rear of the New and Old Palaces had an L-shaped double-height open gallery, supported by 32 Ionic stone columns, facing onto the courtyard.

[16] Some unfinished external construction areas show the New Palace remained incomplete, though occasional building improvements and changes were carried out over subsequent years.

A series of brick arches was built, leading to the parish Church of Our Lady of the Assumption, so the countess and her suite could leave the palace and attend mass without having to mix with townspeople.

Over four centuries the family had hosted celebrated figures at the palace, including Carlos I of Spain, later Holy Roman Emperor, and San Pedro de Alcántara, whose cell has been preserved by the Parador.

[5] The involvement of the Counts of Oropesa in political and military activities established the castle as an important centre of support and at other times of resistance.

The gallery on the northern and western sides, with the temporary addition of bleachers beneath when a fight was planned, completed the ring.

[7] The initiative for its conversion came from Platón Páramo Sánchez-Junquera (1857–1929), a local apothecary, collector and antique dealer,[21] who as well as holding other political positions was a member of the Provincial Board of Tourism.

[7] The council was to continue its housing of teachers, the school, the Civil Guard and other municipal offices in other parts of the property for over three decades until the expansion of the Parador in the 1960s.

The Parador de Oropesa was one of his first works, carried out at speed, and with building restoration and the determination to create a hotel taking precedent over any necessity for the conservation of heritage.

[22] When the Parador de Oropesa opened it was seen as a revolution in terms of tourism, but also it created a new type of employment in an area which was mostly dependent on agricultural work.

[24] King Alfonso XIII visited the Parador de Oropesa on 18 November 1930 and addressed the residents of the town from the central first floor balcony of the New Palace, over the entrance archway.

[12] Other visitors to the Parador de Oropesa in the 1930s included a number of British authors, such as Gerald Brenan, Graham Greene and W Somerset Maugham.

[28] By the end of August 1936 Oropesa castle was threatened by Nationalist forces, composed of members of the Ejérciot de África (Army of Africa) led by Lieutenant Colonel Juan Yagüe.

In the small hours of 30 August 1936 the castle and Parador were taken over in a surprise attack by the Tenth Rifle Company of the Nationalist forces led by Lieutenant Alfonso Mora Requejo under Colonel Carlos Asensio Cabanillas.

[31][32] On taking the castle, the Nationalist Legionaries discovered that the Republicans, aided by their civilian supporters in Oropesa, had rounded up and assembled the opposing bourgeoisie of the town in the main courtyard with the intention of setting fighting bulls loose amongst them.

[26] Eyewitness reports also suggested that several of the town's priests had been seized, tortured and beaten in the castle's courtyard before one was murdered with Bullfighters' banderillas.

"I ran across the parapet, reached the stairway to the topmost tower and came out near a heavy 50-caliber machine-gun firing so fast men stood pouring buckets of water on the barrel," reported Knickerbocker for the International News Service.

"Amazing rage struck the Legionaries as bullets from the armored train hit the parapet ... For an hour the mutual killing went on.

Lieutenant Colonel Maximino Bartomeu [es] took up residence in the Parador while the hotel areas of the Palace and other parts of the establishment were converted into a military barracks.

Local civil governors also met at the Parador to organise the pursuit of the guerrilleros antfranquistas (anti-Francisco Franco guerrilla forces) still hiding in the mountain ranges of the region.

So began a long series of occasional closures and reworking over the next 45 years together with the departure of organisations unconnected with the Parador operation.

Under their supervision the Parador had expanded by June 1992 with the capacity for 96 guests in 44 double rooms and 4 suites, with an outdoor swimming pool and a convention centre.

The dining room had been moved to the first floor of the Old Palace into the area previously used by the Civil Guard, its polychrome coffered ceiling dating from the 15th century having been restored.

[43] The Parador de Oropesa makes an appearance in the 1957 film The Pride and the Passion, directed by Stanley Kramer in which the American singer and actor Frank Sinatra, playing an anti-Napoleon guerrilla fighter, appeals to spectators in the courtyard, temporarily converted back into its bullring setting, for help in pulling a giant cannon from a river.