The first documented occupation of the Castle is from the 2nd century BC with the Ibers and thereafter remains of a Roman castrum are still in existence. The Muslims began their occupation of our lands in 711, and it was they who established a Caliphal fort or hisn.

In the 12th century the Count-King Ramon Berenguer IV reconquered our lands with the aid of the Knights Templar. First he recaptured Tortosa in 1148 and then Miravet in 1153, and finally the lands around (castles and districts of Gandesa, Corbera, Batea, Bot, Pinell, Rasquera, Benissanet, Algars), to be precise, the majority of La Ribera and La Terra Alta. It’s worth mentioning that from the Castle there is a commanding view of the surrounding landscape and, above all, the river. At that time the river was extremely important because it linked the Mediterranean Sea to the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, therefore making it a very important strategic enclave.

It was the Templars who built dwellings so as to be able to reside in the Castle, as well as installing measures for controlling and protecting it. During the century and a half that the Templars dominated our lands three cultures lived side by side within it; the Muslims, the Christians and the Jews. They also established customs and laws that the Hospitallers were later to compile into a code or Book of the customs of Miravet, drafted in Catalan in 1319 and approved by the general assembly of the Order of Saint John in Gandesa.

The Castle of Miravet was the headquarters of the provincial master at the end of the 13th century. This was no chance selection; this Castle was an impregnable fortress and being next to the river it allowed them to be in contact with the north (Aragon) and the south (Tortosa), at the same time as being the same distance from the commands of Roussillon, Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia. In 1307 James II ordered the arrest of all the Templars in Catalonia and the confiscation of all their possessions. Gradually all the fortresses began to fall, until they reached Miravet where they found that the Templars had recovered their strength in the Castle. Thereafter a siege of the Castle ensued lasting one year. In mid December of 1308 the last Templars gave themselves and the Castle over to the royal officials. This meant the end of the Order of the Temple and the fall of the most important houses of the Catalan-Argonese crown.

With the dissolution of the Temple, the Castle and the lands passed into the hands of the Order of the Hospital until 1835 when, with the disentailment of Mendizábal they passed into private ownership. From the 15th to the 19th century the Castle underwent 7 wars and two demolition attempts: between 1462 and 1472 during the war of John II and the followers of the Generalitat, the Castle was occupied by both sides. In 1609 the Moors were expelled from our lands. The population of Miravet were severely affected and the Hospitallers had to take measures to repopulate it. During the Reapers’ war, between 1640 and 1652, the Castle was once again occupied by the two sides. In 1707, with the Succession war between the archduke Charles and Philip of Bourbon, the Castle was conquered by the Philipists. From the 17th to the 19th century the Castle lent itself to the military occupations it underwent and adapted itself to artillery uses. It wasn’t until the arrival of gunpowder that the fortress was destroyed. Between 1833 and 1876 three Carlist wars took place and the Castle was occupied by both the liberals and the Carlists. In 1938 with the civil war the Castle was occupied again by both sides.

The control and dominion of this fortress throughout the centuries has been constant and, when we find ourselves up on the terrace we comprehend the most strategic position that this magnificent construction holds. In 1990 the Castle was given over to the Generalitat de Catalunya, which declared it a Site of National Cultural Interest and opened it to the public in July 1994 after excavation and restoration work had been carried out.