Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain

History | Geography : Location | Sport | Transport | Tourist Industry | University of Castilla–La Mancha

🇪🇸 Ciudad Real is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region.

History It was founded with the name Villa Real ("Royal Town") under the auspice of Alfonso X, who granted it a charter that followed the model of Cuenca's. Located within the dominion of the Military Order of Calatrava, the repopulation struggled initially. Weary of the influence of Villa Real, an independent town directly dependent on the crown embedded within the territory dominated the Order of Calatrava, the masters of the Order established a rival market in nearby Miguelturra seeking to disrupt the town's economic activity.

During the Middle Ages, four km of walls and one hundred and thirty towers protected a population made up of Christians, Muslims and Jews.

Villa Real hosted the Cortes of Castile in 1346.

Juan II of Castile granted Villa Real the status of city in 1420, thus becoming Ciudad Real ("Royal City"). The city most probably did not have more than 2000 inhabitants by the time and despite having celebrated Cortes once, the dominant city in the area was still Almagro.

After the unification of the Iberian kingdoms under the Catholic Monarchs, Ciudad Real became the capital of the province of La Mancha in 1691. This fact favoured its economic development which was shown by the construction of several important buildings. The 1755 Lisbon earthquake destroyed many of these buildings. In 1809, during the Peninsular War, French troops defeated the Spanish army and occupied the town, using the local hospital as their headquarters and barracks.

Following the creation of the province of Ciudad Real as per the 1833 territorial division, the status of provincial capital of Ciudad Real was challenged by the cities of Almagro and Manzanares, with a similar population by the mid-nineteenth century. However the initiatives intending to take the provincial capital out of Ciudad Real did not succeed.

Much of the centre was destroyed during the Spanish civil war.

Geography: Location Ciudad Real is located in the southern half of the Inner Plateau, in the central part of the Iberian Peninsula, at about 625 metres above sea level.

The city is part of the Campo de Calatrava natural region, a transitional region between the Montes and La Mancha, remarkable in the context of the Iberian Peninsula because of its volcanic origin. The plaza del Pilar is precisely built on the centre of a shallow volcanic maar. As Ciudad Real itself was the capital of the province of La Mancha in the 18th century, the whole province of Ciudad Real is often considered as part of La Mancha in a wider sense.

The location of Ciudad Real—without any major water stream passing through the city—leaves the Guadiana to the North and the Jabalón (a left-bank tributary of the former) to the South.

The urban nucleus was founded 7.5 km to the North-East of Alarcos  (a fortified archeological site located on a hill). Despite enjoying a location at the crossroads of the Madrid–Andalusia and the Levante–Portugal corridors, the city did not particularly prosper historically thanks to this circumstance. The city currently forms a near urban continuum with neighbouring Miguelturra.

Sport The city previously had a handball team, the BM Ciudad Real, which was the winner of the handball EHF Champions League in 2006, 2008 and 2009.

The handball club was one of the best in the world and its home arena, the Don Quixote Arena, was one of the biggest in the Spanish professional league. BM Ciudad Real, however, moved its team to Madrid in 2011; renamed as "Atlético Madrid", it dissolved in 2013.

Transport The city has a railway station on the AVE high-speed rail line, the Ciudad Real railway station.

A high-capacity airport (Ciudad Real Central Airport) was built in the city, but closed in 2012. The privately funded airport cost an estimated €1 billion to build, and is now for sale for €100 million plus payment of the developer's debt. Although in July 2014 this was reduced to €80 million in a further attempt to find a buyer. In July 2015 the airport was auctioned resulting in only one bidder, Chinese company Tzaneen International offering €10,000.

The airport was reopened on 12 September 2019.

The average amount of time people spend commuting with public transit in Ciudad Real, for example to and from work, on a weekday is 33 min. 3% of public transit riders, ride for more than 2 hours every day. The average amount of time people wait at a stop or station for public transit is 8 min, while 1% of riders wait for over 20 minutes on average every day. The average distance people usually ride in a single trip with public transit is 2 km, while 0% travel for over 12 km in a single direction.

Tourist Industry The Plaza Mayor sits in the centre of Ciudad Real. Today, only two parts of the wall that surrounded the city in medieval times remain standing: The Toledo Gate.

Don Quixote's Museum is situated next to Parque de Gasset.

The Museo Elisa Cendreros exhibits an old collection of fans and carved wood.

The Ermita de Alarcos is the oldest church in Ciudad Real. The Iglesia of Santiago is also the most beautiful and oldest church in Ciudad Real, it was built at the end of the 13th century in romanic style. Its style is Gothic. It is decorated with gothic paintings and with seven-headed dragons, the ceiling is decorated with stones forming eight pointed stars.

Another important church in Ciudad Real is Iglesia de San Pedro (Church of Saint Peter). It is the most interesting and typical monument of the city. It was built during the 14th and 15th centuries. Its style is Gothic, and it houses the tomb of Chantre de Coca, confessor and chaplain of the Catholic Monarchs.

Ciudad Real Cathedral, built in the 16th century, has the second-largest nave in Spain and a magnificent Baroque altarpiece.

University of Castilla–La Mancha The University of Castilla–La Mancha (UCLM) is a Spanish university. It offers courses in the cities of Albacete, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Toledo, Almadén and Talavera de la Reina. This university was recognised by law on 30 June 1982, and began to operate three years later.

The current University of Castilla–La Mancha is not the key educational institution in the region. Centuries ago, the University of Sigüenza, until the late 15th century, and the Pontifical and Royal University College of Santa Catalina of Toledo, originating precisely at the end of that same century, were already offering educational activities in the region. The University is also the partner of College of Law in Wroclaw.

The campuses operate on a decentralised basis, although the main governing body is located in Ciudad Real, which coordinates the other centres. University courses are taught at all four locations.

Europe/Madrid/Provincia_de_Ciudad_Real 
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Image: kyezitri

Ciudad Real has a population of over 74,920 people. Ciudad Real also forms the centre of the wider Ciudad Real province which has a population of over 524,962 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for Ciudad Real see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns - Sister Cities Ciudad Real has links with:

🇷🇴 Târgoviște, Romania
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to Ciudad Real is: 176.083,-38.983

Locations Near: Ciudad Real -3.91667,38.9833

🇪🇸 Alcázar de San Juan -3.2,39.4 d: 77.2  

🇪🇸 Toledo -4.025,39.857 d: 97.6  

🇪🇸 Tomelloso -3.017,39.15 d: 79.9  

🇪🇸 Linares -3.63,38.098 d: 101.5  

🇪🇸 Illescas -3.846,40.123 d: 126.9  

🇪🇸 Jaén -3.771,37.767 d: 135.9  

🇪🇸 Valdemoro -3.674,40.191 d: 135.9  

🇪🇸 Parla -3.772,40.237 d: 140  

🇪🇸 Fuenlabrada -3.793,40.283 d: 144.9  

🇪🇸 Getafe -3.731,40.305 d: 147.8  

Antipodal to: Ciudad Real 176.083,-38.983

🇳🇿 Taupō 176.072,-38.687 d: 19982.1  

🇳🇿 Rotorua 176.25,-38.133 d: 19919.5  

🇳🇿 Napier 176.9,-39.505 d: 19923.9  

🇳🇿 Hastings 176.843,-39.645 d: 19916.7  

🇳🇿 Cambridge 175.467,-37.883 d: 19881.5  

🇳🇿 Tauranga 176.154,-37.7 d: 19872.2  

🇳🇿 Whanganui 175.05,-39.932 d: 19877.3  

🇳🇿 Hamilton 175.28,-37.788 d: 19864.9  

🇳🇿 Palmerston North 175.61,-40.357 d: 19857.1  

🇳🇿 Stratford 174.283,-39.333 d: 19855.1  

Bing Map

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