History & Culture

It is not easy to categorize Castilla-La Mancha, for it is a region of great variety and complexity. On the one hand, there is the ruddy red earth, the windmills, and simple whitewashed villages of the province of Ciudad Real (which encompasses most of the area commonly called La Mancha). But there are also the strangely sculpted cliffs of Cuenca and Albacete, the hilly woodlands of Guadalajara and the dark mystery and ancient cultures of Toledo.

The city of Toledo is the cultural highlight of Castile-La Mancha, a city that has been over the centuries an essential stronghold for every civilization that settled Spain. Once Roman, it became an opulent Visigothic capital, then an important Moorish center, before becoming the capital of Castile. It was the home of the School of Translators in the thirteenth century, where scholars were instrumental in preserving past knowledge during the Dark Ages, and a unique center of Jewish culture which coexisted in relative peace for over 500 years, with those of the Moslems and the Christians. Toledo was also the home of El Greco.

 

The main crops of La Mancha are typical of a dry climate: cereals, especially wheat, olives, and grapes, from which immense amounts of wine are produced. The world's best saffron comes from a small microclimate in La Mancha and splendid Manchego sheep's milk cheese is also from here. A lively crafts tradition continues here, and entire towns often dedicate their efforts to ceramics, embroidery, lace, damascene, or knife making.

Attractions

Castilla-La Mancha is a vast arid meseta some 1,500 to 2,000 feet above the sea, around which mountains loom in all directions and through which two great rivers -the Tajo and Guadiana- flow to the Atlantic. A third river, the beautiful turquoise Júcar, courses to the Mediterranean, carving startling cavities and wierd rock formations deep into the meseta and creating some amazing scenery and spectacular village architecture. We owe the numerous castles and fortresses of Castile-La Mancha to the long and continual hostilities between Moors and Christians during the Reconquest of Spain.

The fields of Castile form a beautiful geometric patchwork of golden hues, green plots, and ruddy red earth. The Man of La Mancha -Don Quixote- keeps raising his head in Castile-La Mancha and turns this flat arid expanse into a land of fantasy where every rocky crag becomes a fortress, every flock of sheep a threatening army and every group of windmills a band of hostile giants.

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