Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Camarena

What to see and do in Camarena (Torrijos, Toledo): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 3 Monuments · 1 Nature · 2 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Camarena

Church of San Juan Bautista de Camarena 550 m

Towns near Camarena

Spain › Castilla-La Mancha › Toledo › Torrijos › Camarena

What to see and do in Camarena

Camarena
Village
Municipality of the comarca of Torrijos, in the province of Toledo, where Alfonso X resided for close to four months between 1272 and 1273 and from where he signed several royal documents, and which received from the Catholic Monarchs a charter of privileges in 1498 and from Philip V the title of loyal in 1717; its church of San Juan Bautista is a fifteenth-century Gothic-Mudéjar temple of three naves with a sixteenth-century altarpiece with paintings by Juan de Borgoña and sculptures by Diego Copín de Holanda, and its vineyard, dominated by garnacha tinta, sustains five wineries.
Church of San Juan Bautista de Camarena
Monument
The church of San Juan Bautista, in Camarena, is a Gothic-Mudejar Catholic church with three naves, built in brick in the late 15th century on an earlier Mudejar church. It was consecrated in 1692 by the archbishop of Toledo. Its tower, about 28 meters tall, rises to the left of the chancel with pointed horseshoe arches framed in an alfiz beneath a pyramidal spire; the main doorway, on the west façade, is a pointed arch also set within an alfiz. Inside it has a basilical floor plan with three naves on granite columns, with a Gothic main chapel with a ribbed vault and a triumphal arch decorated with coffers and Plateresque finials. It preserves a 16th-century altarpiece with paintings by Juan de Borgoña and sculptures by Diego Copín de Holanda.
Float of the Virgen de la Caridad
Monument
The chariot of the Virgin of Charity, kept in the parish church of Camarena, is a heavily ornamented baroque chariot, decorated with life-size gilded sculptures on secular and Greco-Roman mythological themes. According to local tradition, recorded by the royal geographer Tomás López, kings Philip V and Elisabeth Farnese gave it to the local resident Sebastián de Flores around 1728 to be used in the Virgin's processions, after it had been used at the coronation of Louis I. A 2020 study published in The Burlington Magazine established that it was actually made in 1697 in the Neapolitan workshop of Cristoforo Schor, originally intended for a Spanish ambassador in Rome.
Convent of Nuestra Señora de la Concepción de Camarena
Monument
Former convent of the Minims of Camarena, founded in 1562 by the local theologian Alonso Rodríguez, today only partially preserved. Part of the main façade survives, on Avenida de la Paz, with the remains of the original doorway and a sculpture of the Virgin at the top, along with some arches inside. The building is now divided into several private properties; one of them houses the Mesón Gregorio II, a restaurant serving Castilian cuisine.
Prado Palacios
Nature
Natural area of about thirty-two hectares reforested in 2006 with native species such as pines and holm oaks, in the municipal district of Camarena. It is home to Mediterranean wildlife such as rabbits, red-legged partridges, golden and Bonelli's eagles, kites, griffon vultures and Egyptian mongooses, along with vegetation of grapevines, olive trees, hawthorn and broom. It has tables, a children's play area and walking paths, and takes its name from the Prado Palacios stream, which runs along the western edge of the village.
Alfonso X conducts business from the town
Historical milestone
Between 1272 and 1273 Alfonso X the Wise lived here for close to four months and signed several royal documents from the town. Enrique III also passed through it in 1400, at a time when the place depended on the monastery of Santa María de Batres.
The 1498 privilege
Historical milestone
The Catholic Monarchs granted in 1498 a charter of privileges that freed the residents from seigneurial burdens. In 1717 Felipe V added the title of faithful in gratitude for the support given during the War of Succession.
The garnacha wineries
Food and drink
The vineyard has sustained the town for centuries: in 1620 its residents went to law with Toledo over the right to sell wine. Five wineries work today within the designation created in 1976, with red garnacha as the dominant variety.