The ingenious Hidalgo Don Quijote, his quirky Cárcel and his brand new squire Sancho Panza have made La Mancha an iconic space to let the imagination float to the rhythm of the sounds produced by the blades of the cryptan field mills, of the passage of the day laborersFor the vineyards of Valdepeñas, of the rubbing of barley spikes in the Alcudia Valley and the flight of cranes through the Daimiel tables.
But Ciudad Real is not only the symbol where writers, writers and urban that flee from the city find the best inspiration for the serenity that the infinite plain transmits, but it is a province to enjoy it with the five senses, where to try star dishes,Observe the cosmos, dive between aquatic meadows and go down to the bowels of the earth.Tourism reinvents and here are 12 options:
Gastronomy with stars
In the heart of the Campo de Montiel, Torre de Juan Abad knows what it is to have a Michelin star restaurant.José Antonio Medina, who opened the El Coto de Quevedo restaurant in 2009 knows what it is to recover the Manchega cuisine, that of hunting and the usual stews, updated, but "without spherifications or trapantojos."He reflects very well the culture of this land, because "it is a kitchen of flavor, simple and honest," explains the chef.
Tasting Gachas' buñuelo, Cierva's sausage tartar, La Manchega flower stuffed with ratatus and Cabrito Maki offers a trip through La Mancha.Its most emblematic menu, ‘roots’, and the new one, ‘memories and memory’, include the traditional garlic soup, “which was a food of poor”, updated “with scoring, truffle and tarragon.Everything is not there, because the cod, which was the only fish that arrived before inside, is now cooked at low temperature and its skin becomes Torrezno is its dishes.
Gastronomy is not the only alternative offered by the town in which Francisco de Quevedo lived, which a few kilometers from Villanueva de los Infantes has a templar hermitage and a 1763 historical organ that brings together organists as important as organists every year as that ofThe Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.It shares popularity in the church of the Olmos with an altarpiece of the newly restored Renaissance.
Ciudad Real Capital through a balloon walk
Discovering Ciudad Real through a balloon journey is the last proposal of a tourism sector that undoubtedly ceases to surprise the capital.For just two weeks, the company Ciudad Real in Globo offers the possibility of flying over the municipality with an official tourist guide.And warn, "the hot air balloon does not give vertigo or dizziness."
If what generates indelible traces in the visitor are the experiences, there is no better way to discover the Royal Villa founded by Alfonso X El Sabio in 1255 than in this way.A very different way to see the route of the old wall, which came to have 130 towers and 8 doors, of which the toledo door still survives, apart from the Prado Cathedral, the Gasset Park, the Palace of the Diputación of the Diputaciónor the City Council, built by the architect Fernando de Higueras in 1976.
In addition, the passengers of the flight, who participate in the process of extending the balloon and filling it with air with propane heating, and that have snack, drinks, photographic report and toast with champagne included, survive the archaeological park of Alarcos and the'Mirador de los Maares' by Poblete.
Journey at the Bronze Age in the Azuer Motilla
The trips are in the present, but they can also be to the past without the need for teleport.Ready to break the limits of time, the Motilla del Azuer de Daimiel returns to the history lived more than 4,000 years ago.It is the most representative site of the bronze age of Castilla-La Mancha and has the oldest hydraulic structure in Spain so far documented.
Erected with limestone and clay mud, the Azuer Motilla is a lump of recesses and narrow spaces.Its labyrinthine structure, its concentric rings, its monumentality, perspective and technical complexity surprise anyone.As soon as he divided into the horizon, but from the tower to the deepest point of the well located in its nucleus it is 25 meters deep.
The culture of the ribs talks about populations created around water, as a source of wealth.In the Azuer Motilla came to live 120 people, who cultivated land, stabulated animals, kept food in pantries and cooked in furnaces.The best of all is its state of conservation and the rehabilitation carried out: letters and photographs are not enough to explain what it is and the sensations it transmits.
Walk between wetlands in Alcazar de San Juan
In spring and summer, Ciudad Real attends one of the most important migratory flows that exist in the world, and although the Daimiel National Park is the reference point for lovers of ornithology, the truth is that it is thatIn all the wet stain there are places for observation.One of the least known is the Lagunar Complex of Alcázar de San Juan, protected as a biosphere reserve.
La Malvasía Cabeciblanca, Blue Peak, raised tail and that is in danger of extinction, furrows the waters.In addition, two pardillas, 2 and 6 chickens respectively were detected in the last census of aquatic birds.The Ecological Transition Ministry congratulated the City Council last year for creating the ideal conditions for the reproduction of a species in a critical situation.
The landscape is practically flat with slight undulations, there are sets of Carrizales and Juncales, and in the environment the cereal predominates.It is a perfect breeding, passing or wintering, as well as other gaps of the environment such as the unexpected of Pozuelo de Calatrava and the Vicar reservoir in Peralvillo, where it is possible to see crankshafts, blueons, centers, moritos and infinity of flamenco.
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Art jewels in Valdepeñas
As soon as the work ‘naked on the beach’ of the painter Antonio López, with slow pencil, sky, sky of surreal touches and aura of reverie, greets the visitor of the Municipal Museum of Valdepeñas.Laura Alcaide, technique of the Tourism Office, highlights that here is "the most important collection of Castilla-La Mancha and, I would say, of much of Spain of contemporary art."
The Valdepeñas contemporary art collection, with 900 works in painting and sculpture, gives a good sample of the evolution of the arts throughout the twentieth and twenty -centuries.Feedback by the award -winning works of the International Contest of Plastic Works organized by the City Council continuously since 1940 and that today has an international character, contains works by artists as important as Pancho Cossío, Gloria Merino, Venancio Blanco, Amaya Bozal and Agustín Úbeda.
Around 90 paintings in exposure create “an eclectic set of personalities, styles, techniques and materials”, which walks from figuration to pure realism and abstraction.It is not the only attraction of this city known by the site of Cerro de las Cabezas, which will soon be declared an archaeological park, apart from the wine museum and the Gregorio Prieto Museum, which will soon open its doors.
In the depths of the mines of Almadén
When you go down the elevator of the Pozo de San Teodoro to the first gallery of the mines of Almadén 50 meters deep, the ghosts of the forced begin to parade, the blows in the stone sound and roll the cars loaded with the cinnabar necessary to obtainMercury, the only metal that remains liquid at room temperature.
The Almadén Mining Park, a recognized World Heritage for UNESCO, is "living inheritance of the 2,000 years of mercury exploitation."Here 250,000 tons of mercury were extracted until the closing of the mines in 2003, which is a third of what everyone has consumed.
The visit to the Mining Park allows to walk through the Galleries Caña de Santa Teresa, Caña Gitana, the Pozo de San Joaquín and contemplate the Baritel of San Andrés.It is also possible to see the tunnel that connected with the mine from the Royal Prison of Forced, because in this network of wells and galleries they went to criminals, thieves and bandits, which extracted the mercury that was transported by boat to the colonies of America for AmericaObtain gold and silver with the patio or amalgamation method.
Calatravos and Montes Campos from the heights in Piedrabuena
In this land of extensive plains and volcanoes, the viewpoints are unique places where to observe the deformations of the landscape, and put to look for contrasts The castle of Miraflores de Piedrabuena offers one of the most interesting views of the province.This is where the Calatravos cereal fields are gathered with the mountains of broom, holm oaks, cork oaks and chestnut trees, and one more crop, the olive tree.
Built around the ninth and 10th centuries, Miraflores Castle is a fortress of Islamic origin that belonged to the Caliphate of Córdoba, during the Umayyas, and joined the Order of Calatrava in 1212 after the battle of Las Navas, although soonThey put their eye on the lands of the current population, where they erected a new castle, that of Mortara, with their walls of basaltic stone.
Under the 17 -meter tower that resists on the mountain, the observer who looks to the right contemplates the Bullaque river basin, so known for its yedra table as a fishing and bathing area, and the one who looks to the leftVolcano of the Arzollosa, which created the largest lava casts that exist throughout the Calatrava field 4 million years ago.This is part of the ‘Geoparque Project Volcanes de Calatrava’, which includes 350 volcanoes on an area of 5,000 square meters.
Cabañeros among the firmament stars
With the stars they also have to do with the routes of nature, astronomy and mythology of the company Las 7 Cabrillas in the Cabañeros National Park and its surroundings, although in this case of the sky.Mónica Fernández, a graduate in Environmental Sciences and monitor with a Starlight certificate, combines guided hiking routes with the observation of the sky with telescope throughout the year.
Through the route of the Plaza de los Moros in Horcajo de los Montes, Mónica Fernández makes a trip "to the origin of the solar system, the landscape and the plants with photosynthesis."Through the Boquerón del Estena route, in Navas de Estena, which runs through the fossil fingerprints of marine giant worms, she tells "the origin of the earth and the first animals that inhabited it."
When the protagonist falls it is Orion.The legend tells that he was "a giant so great that he was able to walk through the oceans and was very furious for a heartbreak", so it is related "with cold and storms."His constellation is the one that illuminates the sky on these dates, when the winter hexagon also shines, and what better way to contemplate it than from the home of the deer and the wild boar.
The vanguard of Manuel Piña through the Manzanares Museum
Vanguard and transgression is what is the Museum of Manuel Piña in Manzanares, which although this Christmas left in most of the news until recently was a stranger.The culprit of the newly released fame was Cristina Pedroche, who wore in the 2022 Antena 3 bells one of the costumes of the latest collection presented by the Manzanareño designer in 1991.
The parade of insects and reptiles, ‘the metamorphosis’ of Manuel Piña, includes pieces that remind bees, butterflies or beetles, in an explosion of shapes, color and textures.Of course, the television presenter was not the only famous one who has worn these designs, because the model Celia Forner and the designer Paola Dominguín, sister of Miguel Bosé, did before.
Dresses, boots, jackets, skirts and jewelry are part of an extensive collection, of several hundred pieces, which shows the creative evolution of the designer, including its first prêt à porter collection presented in 1979 at the Teatre Liceu in Barcelona and the premiered three threeYears later in a circus booth in the city of the boys in Madrid.Models such as Helena Barquilla and Lola Sordo, apart from actresses such as Bibiana Fernández, Carmen Maura and Loles de León were his muses.
Diving between algae meadows in the Lagunas de Ruidera
Fifteen lagoons form the natural oasis of water and more impressive vegetation that has the stain in Ruidera.Waterfalls, thorns, torrents, otters, tobaceous barriers and tents attract thousands and thousands of visitors to the border between Ciudad Real and Albacete fascinated by their large bathing areas, hiking, cycling and piragua routes.Here, "sport is an excuse to see the gaps."
But in recent months, a new activity has become a magnet: diving.José Luis López, director of Ruidera Activa, emphasizes that "the Ruidera lagoons are an interior diving center, the only one in the Iberian Peninsula."The truth is that, the lagoons "are a cluster of coincidences: crystalline waters, an ecosystem that allows diving and sufficient depth."
For people who know how to dive is "a very original destination", because diving is normally at sea, and for those who want to start with a "diving baptism" are "highly recommended because the waters are calm."Spanish, Portuguese, French and even Russian divers are submerged more than 15 meters deep between carophite meadows, a kind of evolved algae, which build "a unique ecosystem on earth."In March the normal season begins.
The grape footprint from Cervera Almagro
The Plaza Mayor of Almagro, with its soups and galleries glazed in green, is part of the tourist symbols of Ciudad Real.There is the cradle of the theater of the Golden Age with the famous Comedies Corral of the 17Classical Theater Festival.
But this town known for its Encalado Historic District, its solar houses and rolled song soil, and for the Palacio de los Condes de Valdeparaíso, that of the Medrano and the one of the Oviedo, has added new experiences, which are born from the love of the love for theEarth and its fruits.This is the case of guided visits offered by the Encomienda de Cervera farm, dedicated to the production of extra virgin wines and oils.
Oriented to children and adults, the activities of 'oleotourism' or 'wine tourism' include the visit to the oil mill and the winery, from the barrels room to the 1927 concrete jar winery. The participants learn the production of the productsmore beloved of this land and prove them.They can even step on the grape by the traditional method in wooden sweeteners.
Discover Sierra Madrona after passing the tunnel of Mines del Horcajo
With 19,813 kilometers of extension and furrowed by the main transhumant routes of the country, the options for lovers of rural and nature tourism in Ciudad Real are endless.The hikers and cyclists that are lost in the Natural Park of the Alcudia Valley and Sierra Madrona are amazed in Mines del Horcajo, the district of Almodóvar del Campo that is famous for its mining past.
Just to cross the mysterious tunnel under the mountain that leads to the population, excavated in the rock and one kilometer deep, it is worth knowing it.The visitor who enters leaves behind a sand road that furrows a valley dotted with holm oaks and leaves a mountain village, surrounded by extensive pine forests, where there are also ferns, cedars and complains.
The ruins of the ancient wells nickname the landscape, which reflects the decline of a town that lived a time of splendor linked to the extraction of silver.He had 4,500 inhabitants before the closure of the mines at the beginning of the 20th century.At present, seven neighbors keep this town of walls and sunken roofs alive, with a picnic, where a stone viaduct still survives within the land that belongs to the La Groganta farm.
