THE average Spanish resident will spend between €500 and €1,500 on their holidays this year, with three in 10 set to increase their budget from last year and 16% reducing it.
Introducing the town that's home to the world's third-best illuminations
18/02/2022
LIGHTS, camera, Facebook: Your travel snaps will be dazzling after a night trip to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Mosque in İstanbul, and Alcalá del Júcar in the province of Albacete.
Wait...where?
You can probably place the first two, and may well have seen them in person, by day or night, and know that when they're lit up after dark, they're just magical. It doesn't have to be Christmas for you to get the same vibe from a scintillating street-scene; any time of year will do, and the stunning, fairytale glow will put you in a randomly festive mood without the stress of last-minute shopping, even on an unremarkable date on the calendar.
If you needed proof, the International Best Artistic Illuminations Award, granted by Philips in 1986, went to the Eiffel Tower, with a second prize to İstanbul's Great Mosque.
Even Nescafé was impressed
Third prize was presented to a location not on any known tourist trail – although it is now, as it's on Spain's extensive 'Most Beautiful Villages' network, which is exactly what you think it is and more.
Alcalá del Júcar, home to barely 1,200 residents, sits in the east of the Castilla-La Mancha province of province of Albacete, about 64 kilometres from the city of the same name, but much closer to the Valencia-province district known as the Ayora-Cofrentes Valley, deep in the rural hinterland of the Comunidad Valenciana and surrounded by dramatic, majestic pine-covered mountains as far as the eye can see.
Alcalá del Júcar is also close to the A-32 motorway, which leads north-east to the well-known wine region of Utiel-Requena (Valencia province), and little more than an hour to Valencia itself, Spain's third-largest city and right on the coast.
But back to the lights. Being the third-most attractively-illuminated location in the world, right up there with Paris' and İstanbul's globally-famous monuments, Alcalá del Júcar suddenly saw a spike in tourist numbers after receiving its award.
So beautiful, in fact, were its lights universally considered to be, that the village was used as the filming location for Nescafé's annual TV Christmas advert in 1988.
That's another feature Paris, İstanbul and Alcalá del Júcar have in common: Coffee. Paris for its iconic pavement cafés – many of which used to be a café-tabac, combining newsagency, tobacconist and coffee shop – İstanbul for Turkish coffee, which is practically always drunk without milk, and Alcalá del Júcar because it's in Spain and Spain is, objectively speaking and in our totally unbiased view, the country where the world's best coffee is served up.
Alcalá del Júcar started to get blasé about awards after a while – just a decade after the Nescafé advert, it was picked out of all 919 of Castilla-La Mancha's municipalities, its 1,200 residents out of the central region's two million, as winner of the Tourism Prize 1998 in recognition of its huge efforts in making itself a place people from elsewhere would want to visit.
What else to see in Alcalá del Júcar
Illuminations aside, the village's prettiest parts are best seen in daylight – like its 18th-century Roman bridge.
Yes, that's right – Roman in style (columns and arches, solid stone), designed to look as near as possible as though it was originally built at the time of this powerful pre-Mediaeval Empire, but constructed in 1771 across the river Júcar, which meanders through the provinces of Albacete and Valencia and which gives this brightly-lit village its name.
From the bridge, you get a breathtaking view of the towering canyon, sandy in colour and walnut-whip shaped, home to the must-see 12th-century castle – still in excellent condition and open to visitors – which was built and then gradually reconstructed over 150 years by the Almohade empire which ruled across North Africa and large chunks of Spain during the country's long Muslim era.
Much of the actual village is built up the side of the canyon, and the historic quarter is clearly visible from the bridge, with numerous houses built deep into the rock, meaning they are, effectively, partly cave-homes.
(Oh, and if you don't know what we mean by 'walnut whip', they're a swirly hollow chocolate cone filled with sticky marshmallow with a walnut on the top, and you'll probably find them in British-run supermarkets in Spain's key coastal holiday hotspots. Buy several, because one won't satisfy you, and send us one in the post while you're at it).
Unusual bullring and Moorish caves
Nowadays, bullrings in Spain are far more likely to be used for pop and rock concerts, or for fiesta activities and shows such as dressage displays, than for bull-fighting which, thankfully, is fast going out of fashion – but despite the grim purpose for which bullrings were originally built, they are typically among the most-visited monuments in Spanish towns and villages.
In this way, they are no different to Roman amphitheatres, where extremely violent spectacles involving gladiators and wild animals or mock battles – which were not really 'mock' enough, given that the bloodshed was similar to the real thing – habitually took place, but where tourists now make a beeline for, take selfies in front of, and change their Facebook cover photos to.
Alcalá del Júcar's La Trinchera bullring is one of the oldest in the country, and is particularly fascinating due to its shape – kind of lopsided, oval, and rather like an upside-down pork-pie hat.
Three fortified caves – the Garadén, the Masagó and the Diablo – have been used for practical purposes for well over a 1,000 years, including housing and public buildings; the Masagó cave, in fact, is now partly a restaurant, and all of them are popular visitor sites. Not for the usual stalactites or prehistoric rock-paintings, but for their décor and Moorish architectural influence.
Mountain look-out points offer a jaw-dropping panorama across deep ravines through which the river Júcar flows, with tiny hamlets nestled into folds in the rock, including Tolosa, Zulema, Las Eras, La Gila and Casas del Cerro, all of which are technically and legally part of Alcalá del Júcar and fall within its jurisdiction.
The entire village is an official national heritage site, which is all you need to know about how rich its history is, how attractive it is, how unique, and how fascinating and beautifully preserved its architectural gems are.
That, and being on the 'Most Beautiful Villages' list, which speaks for itself.
Related Topics
You may also be interested in ...
LIGHTS, camera, Facebook: Your travel snaps will be dazzling after a night trip to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Great Mosque in İstanbul, and Alcalá del Júcar in the province of Albacete.
Wait...where?
You can probably place the first two, and may well have seen them in person, by day or night, and know that when they're lit up after dark, they're just magical. It doesn't have to be Christmas for you to get the same vibe from a scintillating street-scene; any time of year will do, and the stunning, fairytale glow will put you in a randomly festive mood without the stress of last-minute shopping, even on an unremarkable date on the calendar.
If you needed proof, the International Best Artistic Illuminations Award, granted by Philips in 1986, went to the Eiffel Tower, with a second prize to İstanbul's Great Mosque.
Even Nescafé was impressed
Third prize was presented to a location not on any known tourist trail – although it is now, as it's on Spain's extensive 'Most Beautiful Villages' network, which is exactly what you think it is and more.
Alcalá del Júcar, home to barely 1,200 residents, sits in the east of the Castilla-La Mancha province of province of Albacete, about 64 kilometres from the city of the same name, but much closer to the Valencia-province district known as the Ayora-Cofrentes Valley, deep in the rural hinterland of the Comunidad Valenciana and surrounded by dramatic, majestic pine-covered mountains as far as the eye can see.
Alcalá del Júcar is also close to the A-32 motorway, which leads north-east to the well-known wine region of Utiel-Requena (Valencia province), and little more than an hour to Valencia itself, Spain's third-largest city and right on the coast.
But back to the lights. Being the third-most attractively-illuminated location in the world, right up there with Paris' and İstanbul's globally-famous monuments, Alcalá del Júcar suddenly saw a spike in tourist numbers after receiving its award.
So beautiful, in fact, were its lights universally considered to be, that the village was used as the filming location for Nescafé's annual TV Christmas advert in 1988.
That's another feature Paris, İstanbul and Alcalá del Júcar have in common: Coffee. Paris for its iconic pavement cafés – many of which used to be a café-tabac, combining newsagency, tobacconist and coffee shop – İstanbul for Turkish coffee, which is practically always drunk without milk, and Alcalá del Júcar because it's in Spain and Spain is, objectively speaking and in our totally unbiased view, the country where the world's best coffee is served up.
Alcalá del Júcar started to get blasé about awards after a while – just a decade after the Nescafé advert, it was picked out of all 919 of Castilla-La Mancha's municipalities, its 1,200 residents out of the central region's two million, as winner of the Tourism Prize 1998 in recognition of its huge efforts in making itself a place people from elsewhere would want to visit.
What else to see in Alcalá del Júcar
Illuminations aside, the village's prettiest parts are best seen in daylight – like its 18th-century Roman bridge.
Yes, that's right – Roman in style (columns and arches, solid stone), designed to look as near as possible as though it was originally built at the time of this powerful pre-Mediaeval Empire, but constructed in 1771 across the river Júcar, which meanders through the provinces of Albacete and Valencia and which gives this brightly-lit village its name.
From the bridge, you get a breathtaking view of the towering canyon, sandy in colour and walnut-whip shaped, home to the must-see 12th-century castle – still in excellent condition and open to visitors – which was built and then gradually reconstructed over 150 years by the Almohade empire which ruled across North Africa and large chunks of Spain during the country's long Muslim era.
Much of the actual village is built up the side of the canyon, and the historic quarter is clearly visible from the bridge, with numerous houses built deep into the rock, meaning they are, effectively, partly cave-homes.
(Oh, and if you don't know what we mean by 'walnut whip', they're a swirly hollow chocolate cone filled with sticky marshmallow with a walnut on the top, and you'll probably find them in British-run supermarkets in Spain's key coastal holiday hotspots. Buy several, because one won't satisfy you, and send us one in the post while you're at it).
Unusual bullring and Moorish caves
Nowadays, bullrings in Spain are far more likely to be used for pop and rock concerts, or for fiesta activities and shows such as dressage displays, than for bull-fighting which, thankfully, is fast going out of fashion – but despite the grim purpose for which bullrings were originally built, they are typically among the most-visited monuments in Spanish towns and villages.
In this way, they are no different to Roman amphitheatres, where extremely violent spectacles involving gladiators and wild animals or mock battles – which were not really 'mock' enough, given that the bloodshed was similar to the real thing – habitually took place, but where tourists now make a beeline for, take selfies in front of, and change their Facebook cover photos to.
Alcalá del Júcar's La Trinchera bullring is one of the oldest in the country, and is particularly fascinating due to its shape – kind of lopsided, oval, and rather like an upside-down pork-pie hat.
Three fortified caves – the Garadén, the Masagó and the Diablo – have been used for practical purposes for well over a 1,000 years, including housing and public buildings; the Masagó cave, in fact, is now partly a restaurant, and all of them are popular visitor sites. Not for the usual stalactites or prehistoric rock-paintings, but for their décor and Moorish architectural influence.
Mountain look-out points offer a jaw-dropping panorama across deep ravines through which the river Júcar flows, with tiny hamlets nestled into folds in the rock, including Tolosa, Zulema, Las Eras, La Gila and Casas del Cerro, all of which are technically and legally part of Alcalá del Júcar and fall within its jurisdiction.
The entire village is an official national heritage site, which is all you need to know about how rich its history is, how attractive it is, how unique, and how fascinating and beautifully preserved its architectural gems are.
That, and being on the 'Most Beautiful Villages' list, which speaks for itself.
Related Topics
You may also be interested in ...
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