A safe and healthy jail

August 22, 2026

We are going down! 182m to be precise Mostly at the start of the journey and then it is flat. We will even go off road a bit.

To be honest not a lot happiness until we reach Orgaz so we better talk about that.

If ita not DOn Quixote it has to be El Cid and everybody's favourite rent-a-sword apparently got hold of this place when he married Jimena, Various nobs squabbled over it or were awarded it for dubious services. On 26th March 1813 two squadrons [120] of Catalan Volunteers Cavalry and 200 foot took on 800 French horse. Plucky Spanish infantrymen repulsed the dastardly French suffering one dead to the French 50.

Our old friend the GSH Dictionary says this…

ORGÁZ: town with town hall in the province and diocese of Toledo. t has a cold climate , the NE wind reigns, sometimes the S. which is very unhealthy, and tertian fevers and typhoid fevers are suffered: it has 406 houses of a single floor in general and of little comfort, in 2 squares and 27 streets almost all paved with pebbles: town hall; good, safe and healthy jail; a castle on the W side which dominates the whole plain in a circumference of 8 to 10 leagues, in good condition of fortification, with a well of very abundant drinking water and 200 men can be accommodated; A school endowed with 1,100 reales from public funds, attended by 30 boys; another for girls, supported by stipends, in which 20 are educated; a parish church (St. Thomas) with a curacy of the 2nd rank and by ordinary provision; the building was constructed in 1770 at the expense of the town, all of ashlar stone, consisting of a magnificent nave, 7 chapels and 13 altars, with the jewels and vestments necessary for worship, which is celebrated with considerable solemnity; there is a hermitage called the Immaculate Conception; another on the outskirts to the south called St. James; another to the north, half a league away, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and 2 cemeteries at the extreme south and north. It is supplied with drinking water from the abundant springs in the vicinity, generally brackish, but some are fresh and clear.

The land is dry, but the mountainous area is of excellent quality; the roads are local and bad.Mail is received at its post office, dependent on the administration of Toledo, by means of a driver, provided by the administration with 2,920 reales, and is dispatched 3 times a week. Products : wheat, barley, carob, oats, peas, chickpeas, oil, and wine; sheep, goats, draft mules, 62 pairs of oxen for the same use, and the necessary horses for its tasks are kept, and small game and some larger cattle are raised. Industry and commerce : 2 coarse cloth factories, 11 distilleries, 6 saltpeter works, 2 tanneries, 3 oil mills, 2 windmills; wines and grains are exported, and the necessary goods for work, such as wood and ironwork, are imported; there are two general stores and some insignificant haberdasheries for ordinary consumption. Population. : 628 vec., 2,231 souls.