Windmills of Alcázar de San Juan

Anyone who climbs up to see the windmills of Alcázar de San Juan will find at their feet a town with far more history than its flat plains might suggest. Its name comes from the Arabic Al-kasar, 'fortified palace', the defensive network built when La Mancha was a no-man's-land after 711. Before that, the Romans passed through here, alongside the road linking Mérida with Zaragoza via Toledo, and left behind mosaics discovered in 1953 that are now on display in the municipal museum.

The great medieval protagonist was the Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John, which in the 13th century built the town's most emblematic building: the Tower of the Grand Prior, also known as the Tower of Don Juan of Austria. The nickname has its reasons, as between 1665 and 1670 Prince John Joseph of Austria, the illegitimate son of Philip IV and 'La Calderona', lived in exile in the Order's palace.

The 16th century was Alcázar's golden age. In 1532 the Convent of San Francisco, in Transitional Gothic style, was consecrated, and a Franciscan university operated there; the parish church of Santa María la Mayor, with Visigothic elements, became a collegiate church, and in 1742 a Baroque camarín was added, with a dado and floor of Talavera ceramic tiles. Also worth a visit are the Herrerian church of Santa Quiteria, designed to plans by Juan de Herrera, and the Baroque Convent of the Holy Trinity. The Poor Clares of Santa Clara are credited with the recipe for the famous tortas de Alcázar.

To round off the visit, on the outskirts lies the lagoon complex of La Veguilla, Camino de Villafranca and Las Yeguas, part of the Mancha Húmeda Biosphere Reserve, where flamingos and herons can be seen all year round.