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Points of interest in Almagro

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Corral de Comedias

The Corral de Comedias de Almagro is the only one that has been preserved intact and active since the early seventeenth century to the present day. The Corrales de Comedias used to coincide with the courtyards of inns, inns or tenement houses, in which, taking advantage of their own characteristics, they were adapted for the performances of comedies during the Spanish Golden Age. In the XVIII century the closing of the Corrales was decreed, transforming some of them into Italian-style theaters, although most of them were gradually demolished. The Corral de Comedias de Almagro was built in 1628 by Leonardo de Oviedo from a remodeling of the old Mesón del Toro. The reform consisted in the construction of a stage, while in the remaining corridors, where the public would be located, the compositional scheme of the Plaza Mayor was imitated. The patio was used as a place of access to the rest of the rooms that surrounded its wooden framework, both when it was used as a scenic space, as well as when it was an inn. Later, when it became the Posada de las Comedias, the different structures were covered to make better use of a space that was segregated horizontally by the adjoining properties. In 1954 this Corral was discovered and its patio was bought by the Town Hall. After successive restorations, it now functions as a theater and hosts an intense activity, not only during the International Classical Theater Festival, but also the rest of the year.

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Calatrava Assumption Convent

The construction of the monastery of the Calatravan nuns, after numerous negotiations, was ratified in 1524, although the magnitude of the project caused its paralyzation for years when the funds were exhausted, until in 1543, Gutierre de Padilla made delivery of an important amount with the condition that its construction was finished in one year. Inhabited by Calatrava nuns until 1815, date from which they were transferred, and the convent was occupied by friars until 1836, when the religious orders were suppressed with the disentailment process, and its assets passed to the State. In 1851 it was declared a Historic Monument, but the building underwent unfortunate interventions derived from its use as a Cavalry Barracks, and later restoration interventions carried out by the Dominicans from 1903 onwards, for its refurbishment as a college of the order. Modifications that seriously altered the initial traces, in the specific case of the church. The proportionate layout of the cloister, one of the most beautiful and least known of the Spanish Renaissance, has a quadrangular plan, and is formed by two galleries with sixty classical columns, made of sandstone with shafts of Macael marble. The choice of Ionic orders on the ground floor and Tuscan on the upper floor is related to the knowledge of Serlio's work "The general rules of architecture", based on that of Vitruvius. The proportionality of the architectural elements of this cloister is evidence of the correct theoretical preparation of the author of the project. Stylistically it is very similar to the hospital of Tavera in Toledo, which raises questions about its execution, authorship and chronology. Its author is thought to be Enrique Egas El Mozo, a disciple of Francisco de Luna, master builder of the monastery of Uclés in Cuenca and a resident of Villanueva de los Infantes at that time, as evidenced by the fact that in the second half of the century those of Tavera and Albacete were being built, with which it bears a close resemblance. As for the chronology, it is documented that in 1534 the cloister was in full execution. The peculiarity of this cloister also lies in its decorative programs and in the magnificent execution of its carvings, which would merit a detailed iconographic analysis. Around the different galleries there are seven doors and three windows in the lower part and two doorways in the upper part, where there is a profuse plateresque decoration, which El Mozo would have assimilated from Toledo circles, with motifs identical to those used by Covarrubias in some of his works (garlands, fruits, cameos, etc.). The main staircase stands out in the ensemble, which corresponds to the Spanish cloister model of the fifteenth century, with three flights and a flamboyant balustrade.

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Almagro Main Square

In the center of the old town. Rectangular floor plan, irregular, formed by two flanks with colonnades of Tuscan stone columns under two galleries, originally public and open to the outside, and now closed by a glazing of Central European style that makes it unique in Spain. Located at the confluence of the main roads. These galleries served as tribunes for public, festive and religious events, such as the famous bullfights that took place until 1785, when they were banned by Charles III. They were accessed by two stairways located on Calle del Toril and Callejón del Villar, and by some small doors in the arcades.

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House-palace of Juan Jédler

The Fúcares Palace, or more precisely, the Palace House of Juan Jédler was considered for a long time the palace that the Fúcares built for themselves in Almagro; later it was considered their warehouse. But this building had too few comforts to be the residence of the richest family in Europe and too many luxuries to be a simple warehouse. Today we know that it was the home of one of the factors -or employees- that the Fúcares sent to Almagro: Juan Jédler. This 16th century building is conceived as a large mansion, with a brick, mud and masonry façade in the Toledan style and whose current door was added in the 17th century, giving access to the vestibule with vaults decorated with plasterwork that communicates directly with the patio, which together with that of the Convent of the Assumption are the most interesting examples of Almagro's Renaissance. The patio has a square floor plan with Tuscan columns supporting semicircular arches. Its ample rooms are crowned with rich coffered ceilings. It was the private home of the Bringas family, later a tenement house, a lace factory, a school... and nowadays it houses the Universidad Popular, a municipal socio-cultural training center since 1984.

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St. Augustine Church

The church of San Agustín, or Santísimo Sacramento, which once belonged to the convent of the Santísimo Sacramento founded by the order of St. Augustine, dates from the first half of the eighteenth century and is one of the most significant examples of the fullness of the Baroque period in Ciudad Real. When the visitor enters the church he can contemplate without interruption the monumentality of the space. A single nave, presided over by an imposing dome, generates a marked visual axis that culminates in the presbytery. To the presbytery opens a small chapel, a singular space typical of the Hispanic Baroque, which accentuates the effect of depth. The interior exudes beauty and balance, as its structure is based on modules that are repeated creating classical proportions. Added to this is the special luminosity of the whole. The changing effects of the natural light that penetrates through the windows, opened in the lunettes of the vault, enhance the spiritual atmosphere created by the paintings of the temple. Its pictorial decoration is an excellent example of the use of art during the Baroque period as a means to move and persuade the faithful. It is also one of the most outstanding iconographic cycles in the province, full of symbols, including hearts with arrows, bundles of wheat, bunches of grapes, suns and moons, in clear allusion to the title of the convent. Behind them, there is a deep religious meaning that the visitor will be able to discover as he enters the building. The church survived the convent, which disappeared some time after being disentailed in 1835, and suffered damages throughout its history; in particular, visible are those suffered during the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, or the destruction of its main altarpiece, among other elements, during the Civil War. It preserves, however, an excellent group of mural paintings in tempera with Augustinian themes. After the restoration of 2021, the space has been musealized and the chapel of the Virgin and one of its towers have been opened for visits, offering a unique view of the Plaza Mayor. This monument has been catalogued as an Asset of Cultural Interest since 1993.

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Municipal Theater

In the middle of the 19th century, the need for a municipal theater in Almagro began to be considered. The reasons given in the Report sent in 1860 to the Minister of the Interior to authorize its construction, on the initiative of the City Council and a group of neighbors, argued its necessity based on the new social and cultural demands of the population "(...) so useful to make the youth understand the path of virtues, diverting them from corrupting customs, as well as necessary in the time of general development of important improvements that lead to the embellishment and greatness of the town (...)". Almagro was merely following the trend initiated in the Madrid Court, which demanded the beautification of the city as a sign of modernity at a time when the nineteenth-century bourgeoisie demanded a more Europeanist image of the city, detached from local traditions. The architect in charge of the project was Cirilo Vara y Soria, who chose the neo-Greco-Roman style to better adapt to the function of the building. The theater was located on San Agustín Street, on a site previously occupied by a group of dilapidated houses. In the architect's opinion, the lack of land was a disadvantage, as there was no room for a square, as in other theaters, for the relief of spectators and carriages, and to avoid noises that could be heard from outside, but it was adjusted to the land available. The new theater had a capacity for about 800 seats and was distributed over three floors. The first floor had separate entrances for the public, actors and employees, and from its vestibule there was access to the elliptical-shaped stalls. On the second floor there was a rest room and a corridor giving access to its eleven boxes, while the second floor was reduced to the gallery around the stalls, with seats in the bleachers that ended up occupying the surface of the corridor. The elliptical shape was chosen for acoustic reasons, reflecting a uniform sound, as well as for a better use of space. According to its author, the interior decoration responds to the Greco-Roman style with variations according to the proportions. The façade was designed according to the decontextualized neoclassicist style, following the dominant trend of the time for public and institutional buildings, conservative in character and preferred by the dominant bourgeois class. The theater had an uninterrupted theatrical activity until the 50's of the last century when it began to be used as a cinema. Towards the end of the 70's, the building, in obvious deterioration, was closed due to its dilapidated state. The theater was restored in 1989 according to the project of the distinguished architect Miguel Fisac, opening again to the public for the development of multiple activities, especially theatrical. Its constant use made necessary a new restoration in 2006.

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Tourist Office and Contemporary Art Space

The Tourist Office is located in the Contemporary Art Space of Almagro. It occupies part of what was once the Hospital of the Order of San Juan de Dios, built in the 17th century and located at the end of San Agustín Street, next to the San Blas meadow. After having suffered diverse uses and notable decreases and alterations, in what remained of the old hospital an open-air theater was built to host the International Festival of Classical Theater of Almagro, and the nave of what was once the church was adapted as an exhibition center for contemporary art. It has a remarkable collection of contemporary authors, both established and new. On January 23, 2005, this Art Space was inaugurated with the aim of promoting knowledge, access and training of the public in relation to contemporary art in its various manifestations and encourage social communication of the visual arts, making coexist in Almagro traditions and the most contemporary artistic manifestations. It is a municipally owned space that has more than 60 works of its own funds, by artists such as Alberto García Alix, Bleda y Rosa, Albretch Tübke, Enrique Marty, Güçlü Öztekin, Mira Bernabeu, Rafael Agredano or Tacita Dean, among others. At present it also houses the tourist office and admission is free.

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Municipal Lace and Blonda Museum

The Municipal Museum of Lace and Blonda arises as public recognition of a craft, rooted in Almagro and some of the municipalities of Campo de Calatrava, for hundreds of years. Although the City Council had already made several arrangements for the implementation of the project, it was not until June 2004 that it became a reality, thanks also to the donations and donations of numerous Almagro residents, and the support of institutions such as the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla La Mancha. The municipal initiative arises from the response to a series of needs derived from the great wealth of ethnographic heritage that Almagro has and its projection on the territory of Campo de Calatrava. The bobbin lace and doily is an exceptional testimony of the survival of popular arts and crafts, constituting an exponent of the tradition that remains practically in its original contexts. For this reason, the City Council of Almagro assumes the responsibility of recovering its historical memory, preserving it and spreading it through the creation of this institution. Current socio-economic trends force us to structure development strategies at the local level, in which local resources, and especially those linked to cultural and natural heritage, are engines and drivers of development policies. The Municipal Museum of Lace and Blonda has its own funds, among which it is worth mentioning the donation of an important collection of "picaos", made by the heirs of D. Toribio Martínez (lace maker of the city), consisting of pieces from different periods and shapes, showing us the richness and variety of forms and uses that, over time, has had this craft production. Also on display are ready-made bobbin lace pieces, with a variety of shapes and patterns: plaited, half stitch, guipure, found stitch, Breton, etc., using geometric, floral, animal, etc. motifs. The museum's collection is completed with a sample of lace works made with uncrossed natural silk, the blonda, with whose technique scarves, veils, fans and especially the famous Almagro mantilla are made. To complete the exhibition, another section of this museum is dedicated to the utensils with which the works are elaborated: pillows, "picaos", bobbins, etc.

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National Museum of Performing Arts (MNAE)

At the initiative of the Almagro City Council and the Department of Education and Culture of the Regional Government of Castilla la Mancha, it was decided to create a Theater Museum in the historic center of Almagro. In June 1989, the construction of a building was completed, where the Municipal Museum of Lace and Blonda is currently located. Given the great quantity and richness of the collections, the building soon proved to be insufficient, so in 1994 the City Council of Almagro agreed to transfer the Palaces of the Masters of Calatrava to the Ministry of Culture so that, after its rehabilitation, it could be used as the National Theater Museum.

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Silo Viewpoint

The National Silo Network began to be planned in 1944 and its first units were strategically located taking into account the communication nodes and railroad lines. Tourist map of Almagro Their main objectives were to enable the purchase of the entire wheat harvest from farmers, to establish a national reserve to guarantee consumption, to allow the reception of imported wheat at the ports and also to facilitate export, and to ensure proper handling of the grain and the selection and treatment of seeds. Between 1945 and 1986, 663 silos and 275 granaries were built with a total capacity of 2,684,947 tons. Throughout this period, until 1984, the wheat sector operated under a state monopoly regime, and the other cereals were also subject to intervention prices which guaranteed their purchase by the State at that level. The end of the wheat monopoly regime first, and the subsequent entry of Spain into the European Union in 1986, led to a more limited intervention and a significant reduction in the use of silos. The Almagro silo was put into operation in 1968 and, of all the buildings erected in Almagro during the 20th century, it is undoubtedly the one with the strongest visual impact, at the same level as the large churches that are distributed throughout the town and far above the rest of the constructions. But in addition to its formidable material forcefulness, the mass of the silo is also remarkable because it represents and communicates certain symbolic values undoubtedly representative of the historical era in which it was erected. These values have to do with the economy, with state interventionism in the markets, not only in the wheat market, with politics, totalitarianism and the lack of freedom, even the most basic freedom to buy and sell. For these reasons and for other merely technical ones, the silo is a very unversatile building, condemned to remain unused when the era to which it symbolizes and which gave it meaning ended; so that since it fell into disuse at the end of the 70s of the last century, it has remained for 40 years semi-abandoned and suffering the ravages of time. In 2017, the Almagro City Council considered what to do with it, how to adapt it to the new times so that it would be useful to citizens and without carrying out interventions that would disfigure it, since for better or worse, it has become part of the local landscape. In that year, the annex building was adapted as a multipurpose cultural space, the paintings of Antonio Laguna that cover the four facades of the tower and its lighting. In 2020 a new step was taken in the rehabilitation of the Almagro silo with access to the terrace, thus offering the possibility of enjoying a wonderful and unique view of our city.

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Ethnographic Museum

The ethnographic museum is the manifestation of the culture of a people, represented in a set of objects of our ancestors, which evoke their culture, roots, traditions ... etc. represented through objects, utensils and instruments used by men and women of Castilla la Mancha in the recent past. The ethnographic museum of private initiative, is born of dead or disused objects, but through the study is given life and this life is transmitted and we could say that with this evocation of the past the present is understood, since each object is the origin of our culture. This museum evokes spaces of different trades (about 35 spaces) and although the visitor according to his age remembers the objects, it will be necessary the help of the word in the guided visit to center these objects in their place and not to be a passive visit but an active one.

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