Village
Municipality of the comarca of Campo de Montiel, in the province of Ciudad Real, which was called Pozuelo until the infante Enrique of Aragon granted it a charter of privileges in 1444, changed its name and was constituted as an independent commandery within the Order of Santiago; in 1587, after the centralisation of justice ordered by Philip II, its inhabitants gathered the money needed to recover their own jurisdiction. Its Gothic church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, of the sixteenth century, has a tower of 45 metres and an eighteenth-century organ, and every year a Holy Week monument of late seventeenth-century Baroque ephemeral architecture is set up in it.
Monument
The parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción is a 16th-century Gothic church located in Villahermosa (Campo de Montiel, Ciudad Real), one of the most monumental religious buildings in the region. Its 45-metre bell tower has a square lower stage of ashlar masonry and octagonal upper stages topped with a slate spire. The hall-church nave measures 45 metres long by 12 metres wide and is covered with four bays of ribbed vaulting; its apse houses the venerated image of Nuestra Señora de la Carrasca, patron saint of Villahermosa between May and September. Also notable is the Puerta del Perdón, a splayed arch with plant-motif reliefs, crowned by a gable and flanked by pinnacles. The church also preserves an 18th-century organ.
Monument
Sanctuary located in the La Carrasca area, 14 kilometres north of Villahermosa, outside the town, with an attached bullring. It houses the venerated image of Nuestra Señora de la Carrasca, patron saint of the municipality. It is the destination of two annual pilgrimages: the Traída de la Virgen (Bringing of the Virgin), at the end of April, when the image is carried in procession to the church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción in Villahermosa on a journey of about six hours, and the Fiesta de la Virgen (Feast of the Virgin), the more important of the two, in which, after remaining in the village for a few days, the image returns in procession to the sanctuary on the second weekend of September.
Monument
The hermitage of San Agustín in Villahermosa dates from the mid-17th century and preserves a doorway in Mannerist Renaissance style, while its interior has been renovated in a contemporary style. It is one of the municipality's hermitages, alongside those dedicated to the Santo Cristo and San Sebastián, which together make up the town's minor religious heritage.
Monument
Pictorial ensemble of Baroque ephemeral architecture from the late 17th century, depicting the Passion of Christ across different planes, which is put up every year in the parish church of Villahermosa. It is considered an almost unique example of this type of ephemeral architecture in Spain. The ensemble is currently undergoing restoration.
Nature
The first of the Lagunas de Ruidera, located about sixteen kilometres from Villahermosa, at the source of the upper Guadiana. It is one of the upper lagoons of the system, at 870 metres above sea level, on the stretch where the Pinilla river flows in. Its bed, choked with reeds and silt, forms complex river labyrinths, and it sometimes behaves as a spring-fed lagoon that in exceptional periods releases rising waters; in times of drought it can dry up completely.
Nature
A small canyon cut by the River Cañamares in the municipal district of Villahermosa, whose highest point is El Vacanás, at 1,017 metres.
Activity
The Feria de San Agustín is the main festival of Villahermosa, in the Campo de Montiel (Ciudad Real), in honour of its patron saint, San Agustín. It is held from 27 to 31 August along the street that bears his name, with a programme of competitions, dances and other activities, as well as the open-air dances and religious events typical of the fair.
Curiosity
In January 1933 Margarita Dehesa Santos took over as mayor of Villahermosa, becoming one of the first women to head a town council in the province of Ciudad Real.
Historical milestone
The infante Enrique of Aragon granted in 1444 a charter of privileges to the place called Pozuelo, which changed its name to Villahermosa and was constituted as an independent commandery within the Order of Santiago.
Historical milestone
Philip II had centralized the comarca's justice in 1566, but the residents of Villahermosa raised the necessary money and recovered their own jurisdiction in 1587, a frequent tug of war between councils and Crown in the sixteenth century.
Food and drink
The cencibel and airén vineyards planted as bush vines on the poor, very calcareous soils of these uplands give wines covered by the denomination of origin La Mancha, with less yield and more concentration than those of the plain.