Castile-La Mancha in Spain
Castilla-La Mancha is called Castilla-La Mancha in Spanish and is one of the Spanish Autonomous Communities. The Castile-La Mancha area includes the provinces of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara and Toldeo. Toldeo is also the capital of Castile-La Mancha.
The community is part of the historic Castile, which is located in the landscape of central Spain and is also known under the name of New Castile. This New Castile also once included Madrid. However, Madrid has been a separate Spanish Autonomous Community since 1983.
Today the Neukastillen area is only known as Castile-La Mancha. The entire region belonged to the Kingdom of Toledo. This kingdom of Toldeo was one of the kingdoms of Al-Andalus. Alfonso VI of Castile conquered the capital in 1085 and thus took over the territories. Thereafter, the region of Cuenca fell to Alfonso VI in 1177. His descendant Alfonso VIII of Castile conquered the rest of the southern area.
The famous book Don Quijotede la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes first appeared in 1605.
Through the novel Don Quixote became part of the Castile-La Mancha region known worldwide. The main character fights, among other things, in an adventure against the windmills of this region. He is in a kind of madness and therefore thinks the windmills are giants who swing their arms about. These windmills and the region in which they are located have now become real tourist and public magnets. Even today, many tourists come here knowing that Castile is the scene of the Bookis.
In 1785, the area of Castile-La Mancha was divided into the provinces of Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid, La Mancha and Toldeo. The Kingdom ofMurciatook over the areas including the population of Alacete, Chinchilla, Almansa and Hellin y Yeste.
Science in Castile-La Mancha
Investing in education is also important in Castile. An important university was established in Castile-La Mancha. What is special about this educational institution, which was founded in 1985, is that the decentralized parts of the University of Castile-La Mancha are spread across the entire area. Some of the most important locations are in the provincial capitals of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuence and Toledo. For example, Guadalajara is home to the Alcala University campus.
In general, the level of education in Castile-La Mancha is very good. The economic infrastructure also benefits in the long term from a solid education. Many qualified workers come from Castile. Most of them remain loyal to the region even after their training, because there is enough work here.
These universities also have a good reputation internationally and there are regular exchange programs for students in different countries. This international qualification makes the later graduates even more valuable for their own economic and industrial sectors. Foreign students also like to come to Castile for a semester abroad. The universities of course also offer leisure activities in the tourist regions of Castile-La Mancha.
Castile-La Mancha Geography
Castile-La Mancha is an autonomous community in the Kingdom of Spain. Castile-La Mancha includes the provinces of Toledo, Ciudad Real, Guadalajara, Cuenca and Albacete. The total area of the autonomous community is 79,463 square kilometers. It is the third largest of the Spanish autonomous communities (after Castile-Leon and Andalusia) and represents 15.7% of the land area of Spain.
Castile-La Mancha is bordered by the Spanish regions of Castile-León, Madrid, Aragon, Valencia, Murcia, Andalusia and Extremadura. The capital of Castile-La Mancha is Toledo, 70 km south of the Spanish capital Madrid. The most populous city with 164,771 residents (as of 2007) is Albacete. Toledo has 80,810 residents (as of 2008).
Castile-La Mancha, which is also the core landscape of Spain, consists mainly of inland areas, the meseta is called. The “Big Table” is the largest and most uniform plateau in Spain. The Meseta is separated into Old Castile in the north and New Castile in the south by the Castilian Divide Mountains, which consists of a chain of mountain groups such as the Sierra de Guadarrama, the Sierra de Gredos and the Sierra de Gata. The two plateaus sloping towards the west are cut by large, non-navigable rivers that have dug deep gorges into the Meseta. The two most important rivers in this region are the Tagus and the Guadiana. The mostly barren and rocky Meseta is only sparsely populated and is mainly used as pastureland
used for the flock of sheep moving over from Extremadura. Only the regions that are artificially irrigated are suitable for growing cereals and chickpeas. The Castile-La Mancha region is also being reforested with fast-growing eucalyptus, which has only been possible since the construction of reservoirs.
