Spain – Ciudad Real – Viso del Marques (En)
Viso del Marqués is a municipality in the province of Ciudad Real, in the autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha. It is a town of just over two thousand inhabitants that owes its name to Don Álvaro de Bazán, an important sailor in the Spanish Navy. The General Archive of the Navy, named after him, is located in this beautiful town.
Where to stay
We stayed at our friend Carmen’s farm (see blog for the farm), about 15 minutes away by car. But there is a paid caravan area in the town (38.519123, -3.555105 lat, long), it costs 6 euros a day, and you have to pay for water and electricity if you want it at 2.42 euros each. As I said, we stayed at our friend’s farm and she took us by car to see the town, where we parked right in the square where all the buildings to see are located.
What to see
Before visiting Viso del Marques, our friend took us to Calzada de Calatrava (see blog for this town) to see a nut factory called Finca la Rosala. There, the owners taught us the process of making nuts and chocolate and gave us a taste of their products, which were delicious! It is fascinating to see how the products are produced, packaged and distributed. When we left they gave us bags of nuts. We highly recommend going to visit it and trying and buying some of its products, which are delicious and made with chocolate, truffle, etc. They are doing very well and they are going to open another factory and store in Valencia!
Before going to Viso del Marques we stopped for lunch at Los Olivos Restaurant, where they have a menu of the day for 12 euros, including the first course, main course, dessert and drink. Carmen and I ordered seafood fideuá first, and Ben white bean stew with chorizo and blood sausage. For the main course, I had fish, hake with potatoes and pasta, and Ben and Carmen had breaded pork chops with potatoes and pasta. For dessert, we shared a coffee mouse. Everything was very good, and the dishes were huge!
Finally, we went to Viso del Marques, famous for a stuffed crocodile inside its church. We arrived and parked in the main square of the town, where the most emblematic buildings are in front.
The Palace of the Marquises of Santa Cruz was built in the second half of the 16th century and declared a National Monument in 1931. The two floors of the palace are covered in beautiful Mannerist-style frescoes that show different episodes from classical mythology. Inside is the Álvaro de Bazán Archive-Museum, with more than 80,000 files and archives of the Spanish Navy since 1784.
Next to the palace is the Church of the Assumption, a Gothic church from the late 15th century that holds a great surprise inside. On one of the walls, you can see a huge crocodile from the Nile River that the Marquis brought on one of his expeditions, measuring 4 or 5 meters, which seems to climb towards the ceiling as if it were a giant gecko. It was a donation that Don Álvaro de Bazán made to the Church.
We finished our tour seeing the Chapel of the Virgin of Sorrows, which we could not enter.
And the next day we went to San Clemente, a town in the province of Cuenca, in Castilla la Mancha, with a Renaissance main square that you can see in the next post!
