The Road from Santiago

 Big  open spaces then two settlements in as many days.  We are going for Argamasila de Calatrava with spirit and alacrity.  What we said yesterday, you know, depopulation, resettlement in the 13th century, that stuff.  Same as today really. Spanish wiki says ‘D. José de Hosta, author of Chronicle of the Province of Ciudad Real (1865), stated  that the town had 2149 inhabitants, with 350 one- and two-story houses distributed around a fairly spacious square and twelve cobbled streets, though poorly maintained. The town hall was rebuilt in 1776 on the site of the former granary, which had served as a jail. The land within its municipal boundaries is flat, sandy, and dry, but it has some orchards irrigated by waterwheels, reaching slightly towards the Puertollano mountain range. The roads between towns are all cart tracks but poorly maintained. Among the crops grown are wheat, barley, rye, chickpeas, beans, legumes, wine, and some olive oil. Sheep, goats, cat...

  We are off to Puertollano - which is what happens when people spot a convenient gap in the hills to run road and railway transport through. 45,565 people lived here last year and it has been described as ‘the mining city’ and ‘the industrial beacon of La Mancha.’ This is a bit of a surprise - well, I wasn’t expecting a place of such size. It is August. The average temperature is 25 oC. That is about half a degree less than July but if you want rain, forget it. 6mm for the whole month. This region was depopulated during the advance of the Christian powers. The Order of Calatrava, a Castilian Military, got given the place - which is first mentioned in 1245.  Things were going reasonably - what with crops and livestock - when the Black Death swept through the place, leaving 13 families to carry the place on. In the 16th century Philip II gave the place a town charter - which spurred them on to develop a weaving industry and become a manufacturer of small jugs. Puertollano becam...

  We are following the valley, wherein the high speed train travels. The N420a becomes the N420 just outside the village of Retamar.  Well, to be exact, the road does weird things. The N420a goes through the place and the N420 is the bypass. We are going through the village because it is a great example of a really narrow route which you can just bet was crammed with angry lorry drivers before some some thoughtful soul built a bypass. It is crammed with old, small, town houses, and probably should be preserved as such. Our friend the GSH Dictionary has something to say about the place.  ‘ It has 40 houses in poor condition and without order, and a church (Santa Maria de las Nieves), annexed to the parish of Almodóvar and served by a lieutenant: a quarter of a league to the south are the ruins of Retamal, which was another hamlet with the same dependencies; but having disappeared, the names of the two are generally confused, although these ruins are also called Casas de G...

  We are heading off to Brazatortas and why not.   The English wiki page does not need a summary because it is this ‘ Brazatortas is a municipality in Ciudad Real , Castile-La Mancha , Spain . In 2021, it had a population of 998. The Spanish page is more extensive and notes, by 2025, the population was 1,007 - which means we can treat the place with much more seriousness. Our old friend, The mid nineteenth century  ‘Geographical-Statistical-Historical Dictionary’ has things to say:   situated among mountains, it has a cold climate , westerly winds prevail, and catarrhals, rheumatism, and epilepsy are common. It has 200 houses with no other building than the church, dedicated to Saint Ildefonso, annexed to the parish of Puertollano, and the hamlet of Viñuela is attached to it  At 1 km from all points, and comprises the valley of its name, of good quality, separated from that of Alcudia by one of its many mountain ranges covered with scrub and crags; a small ...