Village
Municipality of the comarca of La Mancha del Júcar-Centro, in the province of Albacete, which received from John II around 1440 a first title of town, lost in the revolts of the marquisate of Villena and returned by the Catholic Monarchs in 1476; its district, with more than thirty thousand hectares of vines, is the largest municipal vineyard of the La Mancha Denomination of Origin, and to that tradition is linked the making of large earthenware jars explained by an interpretation centre housed in an old kiln. On its plain a battle of the First Carlist War was fought in 1836, and the resistance of the insurgents of October 1934 earned it the nickname of the Numantia of La Mancha.
Monument
A church built between the 15th and 16th centuries that combines Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements, and displays the colossal lines, of more than 2,000 square metres, of an unfinished cathedral, comparable to that of Albacete; its design is attributed to Andrés de Vandelvira, the certain author of the south doorway, known as del Sol. From the original Gothic church the tower survives, from the late 15th century, along with a doorway with flamboyant tracery linked to the master of the Trinidad of Alcaraz. Its churrigueresque altarpiece stands out, the work of Marcos de Evangelio from the early 18th century, paid for with gold donations from the viceroy of Peru Diego Morcillo Rubio de Auñón, a native of the town. Declared a National Historic-Artistic Monument in 1977, it presides over the Plaza Mayor of Villarrobledo.
Monument
The main square of Villarrobledo, declared a Historic-Artistic Ensemble. It is flanked by the 16th-century town hall and by the church of San Blas.
Monument
The town hall of Villarrobledo, on the plaza de Santiago Ramón y Cajal, known as the old square and declared a historic-artistic site in 1972, originated as a grain store or pósito that the first residents, arrived from Villarejo de San Nicolás, began to build in the 14th century. The impressive 16th-century Renaissance arcade that opens onto the square was funded with the town's own revenues and was completed in 1599, as an inscription above the main entrance records. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) with Monument status in 1991, it underwent a thorough restoration in 1992 directed by the architects José María Pérez González, known as Peridis, and Alfredo Moreno Portillo.
Monument
One of the historic churches of Villarrobledo, counted among the monuments of interest in the old town along with San Blas and the convent of Santa Clara.
Monument
A sanctuary dedicated to the patron saint of Villarrobledo, the Virgin of Charity, the centre of local devotion and of the town's patronal festivities. It stands to the north and north-west of the town centre, near the cemetery, in one of the municipality's most visited green areas, next to the spot where clay was once extracted for making tinaja pottery.
Monument
The convent of Santa Clara in Villarrobledo (Albacete) is a monastery of Poor Clares that ranks among the city's main religious monuments, alongside the churches of San Blas and San Sebastián. It was built between the 16th and 17th centuries, during one of the periods of greatest splendour for the town, when the Arcades of the Town Hall, the Rollo, the Pósitos and the convents of San Francisco, San Bernardo and the Carmelites were also built.
Monument
Museum housed in a restored old pottery kiln, where the combustion kiln, the firing kiln and the workshop areas are preserved. It explains the celebrated large-jar pottery of Villarrobledo, linked to winemaking.
Monument
Museum space devoted to the wine culture of La Mancha and to the traditional wineries of Villarrobledo, part of the La Mancha Wine Route.
Nature
Botanical reserve in the district of Villarrobledo which holds more than 160 protected plant species. It is designated a micro-reserve and is the municipality's main natural site.
Nature
The Záncara, a tributary of the Guadiana, crosses the vast municipal district alongside the River Córcoles, in a landscape dominated by vineyards and Mediterranean scrub of holm oak, pine and juniper.
Nature
Seasonal watercourse that turns into a dangerous river during episodes of torrential rain. Its floods caused train derailments in 1862 and 1906.
Curiosity
The municipality has more than 30,000 hectares under vines, which has earned it the nickname Vineyard of the World. At 862 km2 it is also one of the largest municipal districts in Spain.
Curiosity
The clay subsoil made possible a jar-making industry famous throughout Spain and the digging of numerous caves and underground cellars beneath the town, where the wine was aged.
Historical milestone
The Battle of Villarrobledo was fought on 20 September 1836, during the Gómez Expedition of the First Carlist War. After occupying Albacete, the Carlist troops of Miguel Gómez fell back on Villarrobledo on learning that their pursuer, General Isidro Alaix, had received reinforcements of hussars from Diego de León. Undetected, Alaix attacked the quartered Carlists at dawn and dislodged them after fierce street fighting; they regrouped at the Vega de San Cristóbal, next to the hermitage of the same name, but the hussars put them to a disorderly retreat towards Osa de Montiel. It was Gómez's greatest setback in his expedition, with huge casualties, and forced him to give up his march on Madrid. For this victory, Isidro Alaix Fábregas received the title of Viscount of Villarrobledo.
Curiosity
In October 1934 revolutionary insurgents took the city and held out for several days against the police forces. For this reason the historian Manuel Tuñón de Lara coined the nickname Numantia of La Mancha.
Curiosity
Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco (Villarrobledo, 1644 - Lima, 1728) was a Spanish composer and organist of the 17th century, of the Baroque period, active in the Viceroyalty of Peru. A page from 1656 in the household of the Count of Lemos, future viceroy of Peru, with whom he travelled to Lima in 1667. After several administrative and military posts in the viceroy's service, he was appointed in 1676 maestro de capilla of Lima Cathedral, being the first holder of the post without holy orders. He raised the Spanish Baroque villancico to its highest expression in colonial America, composing for the great celebrations of the viceroyalty, and his fame spread as far as Panama and Guatemala. He is one of Villarrobledo's illustrious figures, alongside the viceroy of Peru Diego Morcillo Rubio de Auñón.
Curiosity
Diego Morcillo Rubio de Auñón (Villarrobledo, 3 January 1642-Lima, 12 March 1730), a Trinitarian friar, is one of the most notable figures the town produced: he became bishop of León in Nicaragua, of La Paz and archbishop of La Plata in Charcas, a post he combined with that of interim viceroy of Peru in 1716 and, later, titular viceroy between 1720 and 1724. In 1723 he became archbishop of Lima, a see he held until his death. As viceroy he ran a sound administration, took defensive measures against the English pirates John Clipperton and George Shelvocke, and had to face the uprising of the Araucanian Indians in the Governorate of Chile in 1723. He supported the construction of the Monastery of the Trinitarian nuns of Lima.
Curiosity
The town obtained the privilege of town status around 1440 under John II and again in 1476 under the Catholic Monarchs; in 1929 King Alfonso XIII granted it the title of city.
Curiosity
Windmills have been documented in Villarrobledo since 1675, the year of the first record of their existence, found in an engraving illustrating the work of the first local historian; they are also mentioned by Francisco de la Caballería in 1751 and by Morcillo y Valero in 1889. The last one in operation was that of the Era de Carrasco, which stopped milling in 1936 and was dismantled in 1941 despite its owners' attempts to bring it back into use. Villarrobledo's windmill tradition of La Mancha is less well known than that of Alcázar de San Juan, Campo de Criptana or Consuegra, where more examples are preserved.
Activity
The Carnival of Villarrobledo, the most important festival in this Albacete municipality, has late-medieval origins: as early as 1510 there are references to residents' masquerades, and in 1601 a letter from the corregidor documents a Máscara a Caballo (masked horse parade) with bullfights. Having lost its trace in the 18th century, it reappeared in 1869 with the dances of the Casino Artístico y Literario, regulated by ordinances of 1873, alongside the popular Carnavales de Calle, with disguised residents parading through the historic centre to the sound of brass bands and making the Visitas de Máscaras (mask visits) to private homes. Declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Regional (a regional-level tourism distinction in Spain) in 1986 and Nacional (national-level) in 2011, it is an exaltation of wit, creativity and satire: for ten days thousands of visitors take part in the parades and the night-time festivities.
Activity
Viña Rock is an alternative music festival held every year in Villarrobledo (Albacete) on the weekend before 1 May, gathering tens of thousands of people at its site. Born in 1996 as the Festival de Arte Nativo, in 2007 the organising company tried to move it to Benicàssim, but the Audiencia Provincial de Valencia recognised the Villarrobledo Town Council's ownership of the Viña Rock brand, and since then it has been held again in the La Mancha town, organised by the council itself. It is considered one of the most important festivals in Spain, alongside events such as Primavera Sound in Barcelona, the FIB in Benicàssim, Mad Cool in Madrid, BBK Live in Bilbao or Resurrection Fest.
Activity
Holy Week in Villarrobledo, declared of Regional Tourist Interest in October 2008, is today going through a period of great splendour thanks to the restoration of processional floats and images and the addition of new pieces. Its processions stand out for their sobriety and are rooted in confraternities documented since the 16th century. Among its carvings, the Recumbent Christ stands out, the masterwork of the Valencian sculptor Vicente Tena Cuesta, which earned him the National Sculpture Prize in 1950; the Christ of the Martyrs, from 1940, by the Madrid-born Enrique Cuartero; the Christ of the Insults, an anonymous 19th-century image rescued during the Civil War; and the Jesús de Medinaceli, the work of Sixto Alberti from 1946. The processional floats, of large size and gilded in gold or silver, are mostly the work of the local sculptors Jesús Castellanos and Paco Calero. All the processional images are carved in wood.
Activity
Held without interruption since 1845, it brings families together around sporting competitions, theatre, concerts and bullfighting events.
Activity
Celebration in honour of San Blas, patron of the city's main church, within a festive calendar that also includes San Antón, San Sebastián and the Dulce Nombre.
Historical milestone
John II of Castile granted around 1440 for the first time the title of town to Robledo de la Vega, until then a village dependent on the land of Alarcón; the privilege was lost in the revolts of the marquisate of Villena and had to be renewed decades later.
Historical milestone
Isabella and Ferdinand again granted in 1476 the status of villa, now with the name of Villa de Villa-Robledo de la Vega, in the middle of the dismantling of the Pacheco power; on that district grew the largest municipal vineyard in Spain.
Food and drink
The district of Villarrobledo, with more than thirty thousand hectares of vines, is the largest municipal vineyard of the largest delimited wine-growing area in the world; airén for the whites and cencibel for the reds dominate its unirrigated vines.