Village
Municipality of the comarca of La Mancha, in the province of Ciudad Real, whose oldest building is the castle of Pilas Bonas, raised around 1239 as the seat of the commandery of the Order of Calatrava, and whose church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, the largest in the diocese of Ciudad Real, has a Renaissance sculpted doorway by Alonso Galdón. Here the manifesto that began the Progressive Biennium was drafted in 1854, and in the second half of July it hosts FERCAM, an agricultural and machinery fair of national standing.
Monument
The Castillo de Pilas Bonas, in Manzanares (Ciudad Real), was built around 1239, after the demarcation of the territories of the orders of Santiago and Calatrava, which established the seat of its commandery there. Around 1500 the commander's residence was remodelled, when the elegant stone-columned galleries, with Gothic and Mudéjar echoes, were built; they are preserved almost entirely alongside the keep. After the 1864 disentailment, the main structure remained in acceptable condition, and today it offers lodging services.
Monument
The parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción (Our Lady of the Assumption), predominantly in the Castilian Renaissance style, is the largest church in the diocese of Ciudad Real. It stands on the Plaza de la Constitución in Manzanares, alongside other municipal buildings, and although an earlier church under the invocation of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia (Our Lady of Altagracia) is already documented in 1352, the current building was not begun until the second half of the 15th century and continued through the following century. Its masterpiece is the sculpted porch, one of the most important works of stereotomy in Spain, whose design is attributed to the Basque stonemason Alonso Galdón. The whole building was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) on 8 October 1991.
Monument
The Ermita de la Vera Cruz in Manzanares (Ciudad Real, La Mancha region) stands on the site of a 16th-century hermitage and humilladero (wayside shrine), with a main façade by the architect Francisco de Cubas; the Hermandad de la Vera Cruz (Brotherhood of the True Cross) is recorded as founded in 1690. Burned down in July 1936, it was rebuilt in the 1940s and its façade was remodelled again in 2002. Inside, a large pointed-arch altarpiece of polychrome wood presides, the work of the Cádiz-born religious sculptor Luis Ortega Bru, dated 1965, with high reliefs of the Crowning with Thorns, the Crucifixion and the Annunciation. The titular image, Nuestro Padre Jesús del Perdón (Our Father Jesus of Forgiveness), patron saint of Manzanares, is the work of the Basque sculptor Quintín de Torre, made in 1942 to replace the earlier one, destroyed during the Civil War.
Nature
The Azuer river crosses the flat lands of Manzanares, closed off to the southwest by the Sierra Pelada, already on the threshold of the Campo de Calatrava. The town was founded beside its course, intended to guard the junction of the Cañadas Reales (royal drove roads) of Cuenca and Soria, then the main communication routes in the area. Over the river stands the Puente de la Reina (Queen's Bridge) and, beside its channel, the old flour mill and the 19th-century Casa-Mirador de Azuer.
Activity
FERCAM, the National Countryside Fair of Manzanares (Ciudad Real), has been organised by the town council since 1960 and is held in the second half of July. Across some 9 hectares, the most modern farm and livestock vehicles and machinery are exhibited, along with tractor skill contests, regional wine quality competitions, and lectures and symposiums on different aspects of rural life. In recent years a pavilion devoted to tourism has been added.
Activity
Manzanares's patronal festival in honour of Nuestro Padre Jesús del Perdón, whose main day is 14 September. On 4 September the image of the patron is carried from the hermitage of the Vera Cruz to the parish church, followed by a novena until the 13th. On the 14th two masses are held, one for the confraternity members and another for the rest of the town, along with an afternoon procession. Between 2 and 17 September the programme is rounded out with cultural and sporting events: a youth football tournament, the Regional Dance Festival, cycling races and the district's Arada contest.
Activity
A competition devoted to Manchego cheese and to Spanish cheeses, held in Manzanares, in the district of La Mancha (Ciudad Real), during the first half of April. Promoted by the town council to boost the agri-food sector, the fair takes place in the FERCAM exhibition pavilion, where visitors can taste and buy the different types of cheese brought together for the occasion.
Curiosity
The Manifesto of Manzanares, drafted on 7 July 1854 by a young Antonio Cánovas del Castillo, future architect of the Bourbon Restoration, and signed in the town by General Leopoldo O'Donnell, Count of Lucena, turned the political tide of the military uprising begun days earlier at Vicálvaro, near Madrid. The text addressed the Spanish people demanding the continuity of the Throne “but without a camarilla to dishonour it”, together with reforms much prized by the progressives: improving the electoral law and the press law, and lowering taxes, besides calling for a Constituent Cortes that would make a genuine liberal regeneration possible. The manifesto opened the way to the Progressive Biennium, a period in which the liberals led the Spanish government.