Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Membrilla

What to see and do in Membrilla (La Mancha, Ciudad Real): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 1 Activities · 2 Curiosities

When to go to Membrilla: festival calendar

August: Betrothal of the Virgen del Espino (August)

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Spain › Castilla-La Mancha › Ciudad Real › La Mancha › Membrilla

What to see and do in Membrilla

Membrilla
Village
Municipality of the comarca of La Mancha, in the province of Ciudad Real, first cited as Marmelariam in a bull of 1223 in which it appears as a hamlet of Alhambra; the weight of the melon trade, alongside vines, olives and cereals, has earned it the byname of melon capital. It preserves the chapel of El Espino, the shrine of the patroness raised according to tradition over the remains of an Andalusi fortress, the cultural society La Protectora, housed in a former Franciscan convent, and El Rezuelo, a mill converted into an anthropological museum.
Church of Santiago el Mayor de Membrilla
Monument
The church of Santiago el Mayor is the parish church of Membrilla, built at the end of the 13th century and attributed to the master builder Aliseda, who designed a single-nave building divided into four bays, covered by a groin vault resting on columns decorated with reliefs. It has a rectangular bell tower, three doorways - north, west and the main one to the south, whose decoration is worn -, an apse that is circular inside and flat outside, and two side chapels added later. It served as a model for the churches of the Campo de Montiel until the 16th century. During the Civil War it suffered a fire that badly damaged the roof, and a 1990s restoration modernised it but altered the reliefs on the interior and on the south façade.
Hermitage of el Espino
Monument
Hermitage located in Membrilla, in the district of La Mancha, within the grounds of the old Castillo del Tocón, whose chapel initially served as the village's parish church. The Virgen del Castillo was originally venerated there, an invocation that in the 17th century changed to that of the Virgen del Espino, according to tradition because the image was found under a hawthorn on the same hill where the hermitage stands today. Devotion to the Virgen del Espino, present in various parts of Spain under similar legends of apparitions on a hawthorn, has one of its centres in Membrilla, and the hermitage was built, according to local tradition, over the remains of an Andalusi stronghold.
El Rezuelo
Monument
Old mill situated beside the river Azuer, in Membrilla (Ciudad Real), which passed into the hands of the town council and was refurbished as an anthropological museum. It retains its original, working structure, true to the traditional models of these Manchegan hydraulic mills, and is the closest to the town centre among the mills on the river.
La Protectora Cultural Society
Monument
A 19th-century cultural society housed in Membrilla in a former Franciscan convent, one of the municipality's most singular civil buildings.
Membrilla, the melon capital
Curiosity
The melon trade has taken on such weight in Membrilla that the town is popularly known as the melon capital, alongside its traditional crops of vines, olives and cereals.
Betrothal of the Virgen del Espino
Activity
The Desposorios de la Virgen del Espino are Membrilla's (Ciudad Real) main festival in honour of its patroness, with a procession and popular festivities in August. The devotion is venerated at the hermitage built on the hill where, according to local legend, the image was found under a hawthorn; before that, the Virgen del Castillo was venerated there, within the grounds of the castillo del Tocón, in a chapel that initially served as the parish church, until in the 17th century its invocation changed to the present-day Virgen del Espino.
The first mention of Marmelariam
Curiosity
Membrilla is first mentioned by the name Marmelariam in a papal bull of 9 August 1223, in which it appears as a hamlet of Alhambra. It was the first village in the Campo de Montiel known to have become independent from its parent town, an event that took place before 1274.