Almagro

Hellooooo!

Today I'd like to show a diferent destination for the foreigners tourists
Almagro is a city situated in Ciudad Real province, an important Historical-Artistic Zone located in a unique environment of Castile la-Mancha.

Almagro is a candidate for becoming World Heritage Site. This charming place became a center for the dramatic arts in the region, and the International Festival of Classical Theater (Festival Internacional de Teatro Clásico) was put on here.

In Almagro you'll have the pleasure of tasting the finest gastronomy of Castilla La Mancha and being accomodated in a 17th century convent in a Renaissance Palace or in a modern and friendly hotel of this day and age conserving traditions. ^_^

Almagro is famous for a variety of small eggplants, Berenjenas de Almagro, that are seasoned and pickled according to a traditional recipe. These are usually eaten as a snack, along with other tapas, like banderillas.. very very tasty ^^

This small city is wonderful place to sightseeing, the most remarkable places are..
   
Santa Catalina Convent
From the Franciscans dating from the early 17th century has still preserved the church and the cloister.

St Bartholomew’s church (pic.4)
Founded in 1602 by King Felipe II . It’s highlighted feature is the rococo moldings composed of mixtilineal and rocaille.

Theatre Museum
Located in the Maestral Palace and home of several donations by theatre lovers as well as the Theatre Documentation Centre. Among its archives there are records making reference to the theatrical activities in Spain from the 18th century.
     

Town square (pic.1 pic 5)
Conceived originally as a place of arms, it is flanked by arcades with tuscan pilars. It houses the City Hall – construction of 16th century. Protruding from the gallery are the alleys of Toril and Villar enhancing the beauty of the square.
     
Corral de Comedias (pic.6)
It was built in 1628 as an inn-house and was used as both an inn and a theatre at the same time. Declared National Monument in 1955, it still retains the original structure of theatres from the 17th century. It’s the only theatre of its kind in Europe to have retained the original theatrical architecture and still in action.
     
Lace museum
Opened on 12th June 2004 there are exhibits of laces made locally and the nearby regions.


San Agustin Church
The church has an interesting collection of frecoes of the baroc style.
     
Municipal Theatre
Built in 1863, it depicts the values of bourgeoisie of the time. It has an eliptical shape because of acoustic reasons. It is a neoclassical building rehabilitated in 1988.

Comtemporary Art Space (pic.7)
It is located in the old Hospital of San Juan. It is the house of a collection of permanent exhibitions.
Temporary exhibitions and conferences about comtemporary art are held.
   
Fucares warehouse (pic.8)
Built by the “ Fugger” family in the 15th century, it was used to store grain obtained as income from the military orders and the mercury from the mines of Almaden. Its features are the entrance hall, the staircase and the courtyard.

My hometown Puertollano

Hi Everyone! I wanna tell about my hometown, PUERTOLLANO.

Puertollano, is an industrial city in province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha.

Remember! Spain is divided into regions, and Castilla La Mancha is one of them. I live in the province of Ciudad Real.

This is the situation of Puertollano in Ciudad Real region

My hometown is the largest industrial center in the Castilla-La Mancha region. We have many coal mining, our industries are petrochemicals (REPSOL), fertilisers (Fertiberia), power generation and, most recently, the manufacture of solar panels.

This is the Solar park in Puertollano. This plant was developed by the company Renovalia. It has a capacity of 50MW to supply electricity to about 39,000 homes and preventing emanate 84.000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The name of Puertollano is a concatenation of "puerto" (pass) and "llano" (flat). It is often said that "Puertollano is the town of two lies" ("Puertollano es el pueblo de las dos mentiras"), because of the polysemy of the spanish word "puerto", which means both "pass" and "port". People often say that Puertollano doesn't have a port neither it is flat. It is partly built on the slopes of surrounding mountains.

Well.. I'll show you the most representative places of my city...


Paseo de San gregorio. This magnificant park was ordered to be built by General Narváez to serve as a distraction to those who were bathing in the sour water spa in the Casa de Baños. In the time in which is was built it became the most important green zone in the province of Ciudad Real. Here you could find plant species brought here from all over world thanks to the collaboration of Queen Isabel II, who helped with the grandeur of the garden.

Also in this area is the Casa de Baños, next to the 'Fuente Agria'. This is one of the most emblematic buildings in Puertollano, dating back to 1850. The Casa de Baños was an old spa which supplied water which came from the Fuente Agria. This spa was also ordered to be built by General Narvaéz, who was interested in ferruginous water due to its curing properties that it had with skin, stomach and kidney conditions. The Casa de Baños is now the Tourist Office, as well as being the local services Office. Inside we can visit the individual baths, as well as the collective ones which are still in perfect condition.

The 'fuente de Agria' or the sour fountain. Was date in 1575, and is situated just 20 metres from the Casa de Baños. In the past it was a lagoon with red water where those who were ill or simply the local people went to bathed. Once the properties of the water were studied by Doctor Limón, it was given the importance that it has today. They took samples of the water to international expositions, which won various prizes. The small lake then became channeled through the construction of a shrine which then in 1905 suffered a reformation and became what we can observe today. Originally it was hexagonal and now is octagonal with 9 sets of stairs. We can also see the face of Doctor Limón, who born in Puertollano.


This church was built during the Fifteenth Century, in gratitude of the Virgen Our Lady of Grace for having protected the town from the plague which reduced the population of Puertollano in the Fourteenth Century to just 13 families. This is the place where nowadays the Santo Voto is celebrated, which is a party connected with Regional Touristic Interest.
Our Lady of Grace is the patron saint of Puertollano


'El minero'. Situated on Santa Ana hill, next to the ring road and one of the highest points of the town, and from which we can enjoy a perfect view of the whole of the town, we can see part of the Valle de Alcudia nearby. This large monument, called 'El Minero', The Miner, made of bronze and weighing 14 tonnes is a work by José Noja and according to him, he wanted to transmit the hard way of life that all the miners had who worked in the mine. If we look closely at the monument we can see a hole where the heart would be, which according to the scupltor, "represents the heart and feelings of the town of Puertollano."


If you wanna see an aerial view of my city, check out the video.

This year, Puertollano is a candidate to European Sports City, We Have the best sports facilities!



More info:
PUERTOLLANO
PUERTOLLANO COUNCIL

Hi! everyone

Welcome to my blog!

From now on i'm going to share all my experiences and knowlodeges about travelling around Spain!
 I'm Spanish girl, graduated in Fine Arts living in La Mancha.
I'm not tourist guide, just I really love travelling and talk with my foreign friends about what I did in each place.. I would like to improve my English as well.. and for this reason I decided to use this language in the blog, currently i'm studying in the School of Languages.. So i hope you will understand all my mistakes.

Many people tell me "I would like travel to Spain, may recommend me a special place to visit?"
So... why not? I will try to give my best to help you learn about Spanish culture, our life style also which are the most recomendables cities to be visited on your tour, things you should not miss ^^

I'm from Castile la-Mancha, the land of Don Quixote. Thisis the third largest autonomous community in Spain, is formed by the provinces of Ciudad Real, Toledo, Albacete, Guadalajara and Cuenca.
Castile la Mancha It's  internationally well known by the novel Don Quixote, wrote by Miguel de Cervantes.
La Mancha remains a symbol of the Spanish culture with its vineyards, sunflowers, oliveyards, windmills, Manchego cheese with denomination of origin, and of course.. Don Quixote.