Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Jul 14, 2008 - 08:25 AM castilelamancha

Don Quijote jousted with windmills which he mistook for giants - or was it the other way round? Cervantes does not identify the location of the giants or windmills in question, but he is thought to have been inspired by Campo de Criptana, an agricultural town about half-way between Toledo and Albacete, where the skyline formed by the half-a-dozen windmills that can be seen from the highway gave it the name "Sierra de Molinos." And Campo de Criptana has more, ten windmills altogether, some more than 500 years old. Whether it really was Campo de Criptan which stirred Cervantes' imagination or not, it is definitely the windmill capital of La Mancha, and has now restored three of its windmills to working order, with their original, 16th-century machinery. Weather permitting, Infanto, Burleta and Sardinero (windmills have names, like ships) will spin their sails together on the first Sunday of every month, perhaps more often if there is demand.

It's a town in an awkward flux, with a slowly shrinking population and paradoxically sprawling development, and is making the most of its tourism draw, all the windmills which have not been restored to working order being made use of. Poyatos is the tourist information office; Inca Garcilaso is the Museo de Labranza agricultural museum; Pilón is a wine museum; Lagarto is a poetry museum; Quimera is the Museum of Vicente Huidobro, a Chilean poet - I have no idea what his relationship with Campo de Criptana is or was, but the subjects of the last two museums were born here: Cariari is the Museo del decorador Enrique Alarcón, a Film Museum, Enrique Alarcón having had a forty-two year career as a set director (most famous film - King of Kings, 1961); and continuing the cinematographical theme, Culebro, dedicated to the Spanish actress Sara Montiel (Vera Cruz, 1954 - she was Gary Cooper's moll, the one who persuades him and Burt Lancaster to take the side of the Mexican rebels).

The nicest thing about all these museums, of course, is the pleasure of stepping inside a windmill. And the three working ones allow you to climb up and around their 16th-century mechanisms, though until now, Infanto has been the only one which could be visited daily.

As well as the windmills, Campo de Criptana has a municipal museum and an archaeological museum, both housed in the old Pósito Real, Royal Granary; an 18th-century convent church (the parish church is less interesting, dating from the 1950's); and no fewer than 11 hermitages. The cuevas de los molineros are actually trogolodytic houses, carved out of the rock, where the millers would have lived: one has been reconstructed as the Museo Casa-Cueva La Despensa. And a pozo de nieve, snow pit, one of those things which is more interesting to learn about than to see. Essentially, it is a huge hole in the ground, the one in Campo de Criptana being seven and a half metres deep, used to make ice in the days before the refrigerator. In winter, snow, perhaps brought from the mountains, was heaped into the pit and compressed, which converted it into ice. The ice thus formed would last through the summer, being sliced off for transport for sale to nearby places.

The Castilla-La Mancha tourist information website tells me that entrance to each windmill-museum,.the Royal Granary or the Museo Casa-Cueva La Despensa costs €0.60, and that the windmills are open from 10am to 2pm and 4pm to 6pm (wintertime) or 5pm to 8pm (summertime).

More information:
Visit Castilla-La Mancha
Campo de Criptana municipal website.