Alarcón Medieval Village and Castle
Alarcón is one of Spain's most dramatically sited villages — a tiny medieval settlement of just 200 inhabitants perched on a near-perfect peninsula of rock encircled on three sides by the turquoise waters of the Júcar reservoir. Its 8th-century Arab castle, converted into a parador, is the finest place to sleep in all of Castilla-La Mancha.
The Castle and the Village
The Castillo de Alarcón was captured from the Moors in 1184 after a nine-month siege and later became the headquarters of the Order of Santiago. Today it operates as a state-run parador hotel; even if you are not staying, you can visit the public rooms and the battlements, which offer a 270-degree panorama of the reservoir and the ochre cliffs below.
The village within the walls is tiny — two churches, a handful of lanes and a population that has barely changed in decades. The Iglesia de Santo Domingo de Silos contains a carved Romanesque portal that art historians consider one of the finest in the region, yet it sees perhaps a dozen visitors a week.
The Reservoir and Getting There
The Embalse de Alarcón is the largest reservoir in Castilla-La Mancha and the surrounding area is popular with local fishermen chasing carp and black bass. A dirt track circles the base of the peninsula and can be walked in 45 minutes, giving you jaw-dropping upward views of the castle walls rising from the rock.
The village is 150 km south-east of Madrid via the A-3 and N-320. It sees almost no foreign tourism, which means the parador restaurant serves an honest menú del día for €22 to an almost entirely Spanish clientele — the lamb and the local honey desserts are outstanding.
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