Almagro

Almagro's Plaza Mayor is unusual: a long rectangle enclosed by two-storey galleries of stone columns and green-painted wooden framing, a form owing something to the Fugger bankers who administered the area for the crown in the sixteenth century and brought central European influence. Off the plaza is the Corral de Comedias, an open-air courtyard theatre of 1628 with wooden galleries around a rectangular yard and a stage at one end, the only Spanish theatre of its kind surviving essentially intact; it was rediscovered in 1953 behind later building. It hosts the Festival Internacional de Teatro Clasico each July, staging Golden Age drama in the space it was written for. The town also has a lace-making tradition and a national theatre museum.

What you actually see

• The green-galleried plaza - a long rectangle of columned wooden galleries.
• The Corral de Comedias - a 1628 courtyard theatre surviving intact.
• The July festival - Golden Age drama staged in the original space.
• The lace tradition - bobbin lace still made and sold in the town.

When to go

April to June and September to November for comfort; July for the theatre festival, when performances fill the corral and the town. The Mancha plain is extremely hot in summer and cold in winter.

Honest expectations

The corral seats only a few hundred and festival tickets sell out months ahead. Performances are in Spanish in period language. Outside festival time the theatre is visited on a short guided tour.

Nearby

Ciudad Real lies northwest; the Tablas de Daimiel and Campo de Calatrava are close.