Castilla-La Mancha

True to its name, Castilla-La Mancha is a region speckled with castles. Most of these fortresses were built between the 9th and 12th centuries, when the region was a battleground between the Christians and the Moors, while others mark the 14th- and 15th-century frontiers between the kingdoms of Aragón and Castile. The region is also famed for its windmills, immortalized by Miguel de Cervantes in his 1605 epic Don Quixote.

The region’s seemingly empty plains were the stage for a rich history of religious tolerance. Toledo, now the capital of the comunidad autónoma, was once the capital of Visigothic Spain. Captured by the Moors in AD 711, the city became a literary and ecclesiastical centre as part of al-Andalus. Muslims, Christians and Jews peacefully coexisted here, even after it became the first major Moorish city to fall to the Christians in 1085.

Carlos I established his court at Toledo in 1518, and it became the imperial capital of the Holy Roman Empire. This eminence lasted until the court moved to Madrid in 1561, triggering a lengthy period of stagnation. But this lack of development has led to the preservation of Toledo, and the rest of Castilla-La Mancha, making it the perfect place to see the Spain of yesteryear.