Village
Municipality of the comarca of Campos de Hellín, in the province of Albacete, occupied in 1242 by the Order of Santiago and placed in 1476 under the direct authority of the Catholic Monarchs; its tamborada, with 104 hours of uninterrupted drumming during Holy Week, was recognised in 2018 as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. On the hill overlooking the town stands the shrine of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación, a Monumento Histórico-Artístico Nacional (Spain's heritage designation in force between 1931 and 1985) since 1981, with Mudéjar coffering, eighteenth-century wall paintings and a Rococo camarín.
Monument
The parish church of the Assumption of Tobarra was built between 1546 and 1616 in the Spanish Renaissance style, on a plan of Gothic origin, with a polygonal chancel and buttresses, and classical supports of half-columns with a back pilaster. It has a large rectangular central nave with Gothic ribbed vaults and side chapels, seven on the left and six on the right, two entrance doors, a raised choir at the foot of the nave and the clock tower that dominates the town, visible from the Cerro de la Encarnación. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), in the category of monument, on 17 November 2000, and is the main monument of the town centre.
Monument
The sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación and the hermitage of the Cristo de la Antigua stand on the hill overlooking Tobarra, in the Campos de Hellín. It may have originated in the hermitage of Santa María mentioned in 1587, although the present church was built between the 15th and 18th centuries. It consists of three naves, two with ribbed vaulting and the third with a Mudéjar coffered ceiling of interlacing and pine-cone muqarnas work, perhaps taken from a former mosque. Notable features include 15th-century wall paintings of the Passion, the camarín of the Virgen de la Encarnación, patron saint of Tobarra, and another Rococo camarín, beneath the dome, housing the Cristo de la Antigua, patron of the town, decorated with Manises tiles. It was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico Nacional (a former Spanish national heritage designation, now folded into the Bien de Interés Cultural category) in 1981.
Monument
A museum housed in a former 17th-century hermitage, devoted to the instrument that defines the local Semana Santa. It displays drums from different parts of the world.
Monument
A Visigothic-period hermitage complex cut into the rock, some six kilometres from the built-up area beside an old marble quarry. It is one of the most singular examples of rock-cut architecture in the province.
Monument
A defensive tower in the outlying village of Sierra, a testament to the medieval watch system of south-eastern Albacete. It commands a wide horizon of fields and sierras.
Monument
Remains of the old Andalusi fortress that crowned the town, among them the tower popularly known as Ojos del Diablo. They recall the strategic role of Tobarra on the medieval frontier.
Nature
A small lagoon of permanent water in the municipal district of Tobarra, of great ecological interest. It supports marsh vegetation and shelters the aquatic wildlife of the comarca.
Nature
A protected area around saline soils with highly specialised halophyte vegetation. It is one of the most singular nature reserves in the province of Albacete.
Nature
A rise that overlooks the built-up area of Tobarra and offers a complete view of the town and its fields. The sanctuary of La Encarnación and the Monte Calvario stand on its summit.
Activity
A drumming that goes on for 104 uninterrupted hours during Semana Santa, one of the most singular features of the Spanish drumming tradition. It was declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2018.
Activity
Tobarra's Holy Week, one of the most notable in Spain, has been declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (Spain's national-level official tourist recognition for a festivity) since 1988, and its tamborada is an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by Unesco: for 104 uninterrupted hours the drum sounds through the streets, making the town the place in the world where drumming continues for the longest unbroken stretch. Its origins, uncertain but ancient, go back at least to the late 16th century, when the Hermandad de la Sangre de Cristo already existed, and to the involvement of the Franciscans, credited with both the Way of the Cross on Mount Calvary and the custom of drums that on Good Friday simulated the din of Christ's death.
Activity
Patronal festivals of Tobarra (Albacete) in honour of the Most Holy Christ of la Antigua and the Most Holy Virgin of the Incarnation, whose images are venerated at the Sanctuary of the Incarnation. They begin on the second Sunday of May with the traditional auctions and the bringing down of the patron images to the church of the Assumption, where masses and novenas are held in their honour. They also include the offering of flowers to the patroness, during which men, women, boys and girls wear the regional costumes of manchegos, serranas and espigadoras. The festivities end on the second-to-last Saturday of May with a solemn procession of the patron images through the whole town and the return of the images to the sanctuary.
Activity
August festivals in honour of San Roque, held from the 14th to the 21st of that month and including literary contests and the traditional corrida de la palma. Highlights include the floral games, a poetic and literary event that is the high point of the festivities, as well as sporting, musical and bullfighting activities that round out the festive programme.
Activity
Winter festival in honour of San Antón, with an evening procession, fireworks and street celebrations in Tobarra. The events begin with the procession of the castle, on the night of 16 to 17 January, which passes along the streets of Ramón y Cajal, Tercera del Collado, Travesía and La Parra to reach the saint's church; at the end the traditional castillo of fireworks is set off. During the festival days novenas are also held, along with fundraising collections through the town and its hamlets, auctions and carretillas in La Parra street, as well as musical and culinary activities.
Curiosity
Tobarra holds the longest tamborada in Spain: its drums sound without interruption for 104 hours straight during Semana Santa. That continuity is what sets its drumming apart from that of other drumming towns.
Curiosity
Beside the rock-cut hermitage complex of Alborajico there is an old marble quarry worked since historic times. The local stone was used in buildings across the comarca.
Monument
The rock-cut Visigothic hermitage of Tobarra (Albacete) is a Mozarabic eremitory carved into the rock of the Cerro de La Muela hill, next to the now-abandoned hamlet of Alborajico, six kilometres from the municipal seat, near marble quarries worked from Roman times until the 17th century. It dates from the 6th to the 9th centuries, spanning Visigothic rule and the Mozarabic period. The well-preserved rock-cut complex has three naves; the largest is thought to have probably been a Visigothic church, with several niches and recesses for liturgical objects and two stone beds, complete with their pillows, which flanked an altar of stone slabs now destroyed.
Nature
The Laguna de Alboraj and the Saladares de Cordovilla are wetlands within the extensive municipality of Tobarra (325 km²), whose relief is mostly flat and dotted with hills -the Madroño (1052 m) and the Berrueco (1040 m) among the highest-, in the comarca of Campos de Hellín.
Curiosity
Tobarra holds the record of 104 uninterrupted hours of drumming during Semana Santa, with more than 30,000 taking part in the blessing on the Monte Calvario on Good Friday.
Activity
Festivities of Tobarra in honour of the Cristo de la Antigua and the Virgen de la Encarnación, with parades of traditional costumes and a flower offering. They begin on the second Sunday of May, with the traditional bidding auctions and the bringing down of the patron figures from the sanctuary of la Encarnación to the church of la Asunción, and continue with masses and novenas until the second-to-last Saturday of the month. In the flower offering to the patron saint, men, women, boys and girls take part dressed in the regional costumes of manchegos, serranas and spigadoras (gleaners). The festivities conclude with a solemn procession of the patron figures through the whole town and with their return up to the sanctuary.
Historical milestone
The troops of Pelayo Pérez Correa, chief commander of Castile in the Order of Santiago, occupied Tobarra in 1242; Ferdinand III confirmed the cession by a charter issued in Burgos and the castle and its district ended up attached to the council of Alcaraz.
Historical milestone
After the war against the marquis of Villena, in 1476 Tobarra came under the direct dependence of Isabella and Ferdinand; its privileges and franchises, granted by earlier kings, were confirmed and the town consolidated its own council.
Historical milestone
Unesco inscribed in 2018 on its list of intangible cultural heritage the tamboradas, or drum-beating rituals, in a dossier in which Tobarra figures as one of the essential centers for its more than a hundred hours of uninterrupted drumming.
Food and drink
A variety with pale skin and firm, aromatic flesh that the huerta of Tobarra has made its emblematic fruit; it is eaten fresh at the height of summer and preserved in syrup or sun-dried for the rest of the year.
Food and drink
A dry sweet made with a fine paste of flour, egg and oil that is baked and finished with a meringue of egg white and sugar. It accompanies coffee in the households during the great days of the tamborada and the patron saint festivities.