Villanueva de los infantes ciudad real

manzanares castilla la mancha

It was an important crossroads, because the Camino Real that went from Infantes to Granada through Antigua and Villahermosa, or the road to Alhambra by the bridge of El Salido or Montiel, passed through it.

From 1501 it will have the title of Villa, and in 1573 it becomes the capital of the Campos de Montiel by order of Felipe II, acquiring great economic, cultural and religious boom that can be seen in its constructions. In 1895 it was granted the title of city.

In 1975 it was declared a historical site for being an important enclave of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Quevedo died here in a cell in the convent of Santo Domingo. In its streets, almost symmetrical, there is a humanist and literary air, with its facades and facades.

In the Plaza Mayor we find two noble buildings: the City Hall, in stone and with arcades of neoclassical arcades, consists of two floors or bodies; in the first alternating balconies with triangular pediments and semicircular, in the second are linteled.

In the north front is the parish of San Andrés, Mannerist, of the XVI century, that in times of La Moraleja was a hermitage; very interesting they are their three covers, two plateresque and the main one classicist. This is framed by a deep semicircular arch, it has double Doric columns on plinth that support an entablature that in turn serves as a base for a small temple of Ionic columns and a split pediment with the coat of arms of the Austrias and the figure of San Andrés with the cross aspada. It is dated in 1612.

tomelloso

The coat of arms of Villanueva de los Infantes was granted in 1421 by the infante Enrique. It represents the cross of the Order of Santiago with a castle and a lion, alluding to the kingdoms of Castile and Leon; and two coats of arms of the House of Aragon alluding to the infante Enrique (brother of Alfonso V of Aragon).

The most important rivers are the Jabalón, a tributary of the Guadiana which rises 20 km from Villanueva de los Infantes in Los Ojos de Montiel (Montiel) and the Azuer which rises in the municipality of Villahermosa, in the heart of Campo de Montiel.

Villanueva de los Infantes belongs, due to its latitude, to the Mediterranean climate characterized by seasonal temperatures. This climate is influenced by the fact that it is located in the interior of the Iberian Peninsula and on the plateau, at an altitude of 890 meters above sea level.

The predominant flora is scrubland: rosemary, rockroses, salvias, thyme… have been proliferating on land that the oak groves have given to man for dry crops (cereals, vines and olives). The main arboreal element of the area is the holm oak.