Village
Municipality of the comarca of La Mancha del Júcar-Centro, in the province of Albacete, founded in the mid-fifteenth century by residents of Villanueva de la Jara over an old hamlet called Casas de Cuarto Alto, which grew until it obtained its own jurisdiction as far as the bank of the Júcar; its Plaza Mayor, a seventeenth-century arcaded ensemble with porticoes and wooden balconies, is declared a historic-artistic ensemble. During the Civil War it hosted a base of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades, visited in 1937 by two United States congressmen.
Monument
A 17th-century arcaded square declared a historic-artistic ensemble, with covered walkways and wooden balconies that give it the air of a traditional Castilian square.
Monument
Parish church of Tarazona de la Mancha (Albacete), on the plaza Mayor, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection). The documented works began in 1549 and, after several interruptions, were considered finished around the middle of the 17th century, in 1649; the tower and several chapels were added afterwards. It is a basilica-plan church with three naves separated by slender Ionic columns from which semicircular arches spring, covered with a groin vault except at the crossing, which is topped by an elliptical dome on pendentives divided into eight coffered segments. The main doorway, of Vandelvira-like style, is arranged in two tiers with paired Tuscan columns. The square-plan, three-tier tower is topped by a slate spire.
Monument
Renaissance town hall completed in 1692, a date inscribed on its façade, which retains its original stone arcades. It stands next to the plaza Mayor of Tarazona de la Mancha, of which it is the only building to retain original stone arcades with semicircular arches. It is part of the declared historic-artistic ensemble of the plaza Mayor, an example of 17th-century La Mancha municipal architecture.
Monument
Well preserved bridge over the River Valdemembra which formed part of an old Roman road crossing these lands of La Mancha.
Monument
17th-century hermitage around which the feast of San Antón, patron of animals, is celebrated every 17 January. The night before it is customary to light large bonfires, and on the feast day the villagers go to the hermitage accompanied by their animals, which they lead around the building an odd number of times.
Monument
A singular bullring that makes use of the slope of a hillside, one of the most curious features of the heritage of Tarazona de la Mancha.
Nature
The río Valdemembra rises in Chumillas (Cuenca) and flows into the left bank of the río Júcar at Mahora (Albacete), crossing along its course the Manchuela region and towns such as Villanueva de la Jara, Quintanar del Rey and Tarazona de la Mancha. As it passes through the town centre of Tarazona it preserves a Roman bridge in its bed. The relief of this municipal area, predominantly flat, ranges between the 747 metres of the cerro Juanotón, to the north, and the 630 metres on the banks of the río Júcar, which marks the municipality's southern boundary; the town itself stands at 709 metres above sea level.
Curiosity
Philip II granted Tarazona the title of villa in 1564. The town had been founded in the middle of the 15th century by settlers from Villanueva de la Jara.
Curiosity
During the Civil War the town hosted a base of the Abraham Lincoln Battalion of the International Brigades, visited in 1937 by the American congressmen Jerry J. OConnell and John T. Bernard. Formed mainly of volunteers from the Communist Party of the United States and other labour organisations, the battalion assembled from 1936 in Figueras and continued its training, together with the rest of the foreign brigade members, in Albacete, before being quartered in Tarazona de la Mancha and Villanueva de la Jara. It first went into combat in February 1937, with 450 soldiers, and over the course of 1937 and 1938 around 2,500 Americans passed through its ranks; it took part in the battles of Jarama, Brunete, Belchite and Teruel.
Curiosity
Traditional bun filled with boiled egg, chorizo or sardine, also called mona, eaten out in the countryside on the Thursday before Lent.
Curiosity
The town was known simply as Tarazona until the 1916 reform of municipal nomenclature, approved by royal decree of 2 July of that year and published in the Gaceta de Madrid, number 184, which forced 573 Spanish municipalities to change their names. Tarazona then added the surname de la Mancha to distinguish itself from the Aragonese Tarazona.
Activity
Los Matachines de San Blas is held on 3 February in Tarazona de la Mancha: outside the parish church and at the saint's hermitage, at the top of the calle de la Virgen, dancers perform a stick dance called Los Matachines, one of the oldest and most distinctive traditions of the town. On the same day parishioners offer San Blas wax ex-votos, mostly throats, along with other figures representing parts of the body.
Activity
Carnival is the most important and best-known festival of Tarazona de la Mancha, in the province of Albacete, declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Regional (a designation for festivities of outstanding regional tourism interest) in Castilla-La Mancha since 2013. Its origins may go back to medieval times, and Cervantes himself refers to the disguised people of these La Mancha lands in Don Quixote (1605). The first documented mention dates from 1894, when a municipal record notes a payment to the town band to liven up the festival. The 1899 Ordenanza de Buen Gobierno went as far as regulating the use of costumes and masks during these days. Not even the banning of carnival under the dictatorship managed to end a tradition that the town has kept alive and reinvented, turning it into one of its great tourist attractions.
Activity
The Fiestas de San Bartolomé de Tarazona are the patronal festivities of Tarazona de la Mancha (Albacete, in the comarca of La Mancha del Júcar-Centro), held around 24 August in honour of the patron saint. Declared a festivity of Interés Turístico Regional (a designation for festivities of outstanding regional tourism interest), they combine bullfighting events with verbenas and an extensive cultural programme, and rank among the most notable dates on the local festive calendar, alongside Carnival.
Activity
Feast of San Antón in Tarazona de la Mancha (Albacete), one of the most deeply rooted winter events, held on 17 January around the hermitage of San Antonio Abad. The night before it is customary to light large bonfires, and on the feast day the villagers go to the hermitage accompanied by animals and lead them around it an odd number of times.
Activity
The pilgrimage of San Isidro Labrador is held in Tarazona de la Mancha (La Mancha del Júcar-Centro, Albacete) on 15 May, a farmers' festival in which the whole town goes out in procession to the countryside in honour of the patron saint of La Mancha's farmers.
Historical milestone
Residents of Villanueva de la Jara settled in the mid-15th century on an old village called Casas de Cuarto Alto and founded the settlement that would be Tarazona; the new place grew quickly until it obtained its own jurisdiction as far as the bank of the Júcar.
Historical milestone
A delegation of United States congressmen came in 1937 to Tarazona to visit the volunteers of the Lincoln Battalion quartered in the village; the scene went around the world as an image of international support for the Republic.
Food and drink
After the grape harvest the must is boiled down to a dark syrup, the arrope, in which pumpkin and melon are candied; thickened with flour and walnuts it gives the mostillo. It was the only way to keep the sweetness of the grape all year.