Event calendar file
19-21 April 2012
UCLM
Europe/Zurich timezone
The dinner will take place on Friday April 20 at the Parador de Almagro, formerly the Santa Catalina convent.
According to tradition, the origin of the city was a Moorish castle, called Almagrib, raised in one of the derivations of the road to Toledo, Cordoba and could have been located in the current Maestrales Palacios. This name refers to the characteristic red clay of the area, almagro color. The ocher is present in the coloring of the Plaza Mayor and other municipal buildings. The outstanding feature of Almagro is the Plaza Mayor, which has remained scarcely changed over the past 400 years. This oblong plaza is bordered on its longer sides, which stretch three blocks, by a colonnade the stone columns of which support an uninterrupted row of two-storied dwellings. The facades are a series of windows (balconcillos) with dark green wooden frames. The long symmetrical line is at once classic and disarmingly domestic. The stone columns form lengthy arcades for shopping and strolling. They are characteristically Spanish while the facades are northern European. Almagro is also famous for the Corral de Comedias, probably the only 16th-century open-pit theater still in existence. Cereal, vines, olives, and cotton are grown and cultivated here; there is also livestock and herding. There are also quarries of basalt and mines of manganese and plaster. A traditional industry is the fashioning of appliqué lace and pillow lace (encaje de bolillos). Other industries include woodworking and construction, though most activity revolves around tourism, in particular on the occasion of the renowned International Theatre Festival classic, held annually since 1978. |
