Logbook · 4 places

What to see and do in Tarancón

What to see and do in Tarancón (La Mancha Conquense, Cuenca): 4 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

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Spain › Castilla-La Mancha › Cuenca › La Mancha Conquense › Tarancón

What to see and do in Tarancón

Tarancón
Village
Tarancón is a municipality in the province of Cuenca, situated in the Alcarria though close to La Mancha, in the west of the province and bordering Toledo. With 16,748 inhabitants it is the second most populous municipality in the province after the capital and the seat of a judicial district. Its first settlers were Celtiberians and later Romans, of whom a bridge over the Riánsares survives; while still a hamlet of Uclés, the Santiaguist master Lorenzo Suárez de Figueroa created its town council in 1403. Its town hall occupies the 19th-century palace of the dukes of Riánsares, and its confectioners specialise in bizcocho borracho, a sponge cake soaked in syrup that, despite its name, contains no alcohol. In July 1949 the explosion of the neighbouring military powder magazine caused at least twenty-five deaths.
Palace of los Duques de Riánsares
Historical milestone
Nineteenth-century palace of Tuscan columns linked to Fernando Muñoz, duke of Riánsares and husband of the regent queen María Cristina de Borbón. Restored in the twentieth century, it today houses the town hall of Tarancón.
The 1949 powder magazine explosion
Historical milestone
On 26 July 1949 the military powder magazine situated beside Tarancón exploded and caused at least twenty-five deaths, as well as serious damage to the nearby houses. It was the greatest civil catastrophe experienced by the city in the twentieth century.
"Drunken" sponge cake of Tarancón
Food and drink
Bizcocho borracho is a Spanish pastry made with a batter of egg, flour, sugar, yeast and water that rises in the oven and is then soaked, for at least an hour, in a syrup whose recipe is a secret held by each pastry chef. Although in many localities the syrup is mixed with liquor — rum, sweet wine, sherry, brandy or whisky —, the version prepared by the confectioners of Tarancón, in the province of Cuenca, is spongy and contains no alcohol, and is dusted with cinnamon and sugar. They tend to be small and are presented in little paper boxes; in Tarancón they accompany family celebrations and patron saint festivities. This speciality is also found, with variations, in Vellisca, Guadalajara, Alcañices, Ojós and Nájera.