Send Gift Baskets to Ciudad Real, Spain

It was founded with the name Villa Real (“Royal Town”) under Alfonso X, who granted it a charter similar to Cuenca’s. Located within the dominion of the Military Order of Calatrava, the repopulation initially struggled. The masters of the Order of Calatrava, concerned about the influence of Villa Real, an independent town directly dependent on the crown embedded in territory dominated by the Order, established a rival market in Miguelturra nearby to disrupt Villa Real’s economics.

A Christian, Muslim, and Jewish population was protected by four kilometers of walls and one hundred and thirty towers during the Middle Ages.

Villa Real hosted the Cortes of Castile in 1346.

When Juan II of Castile granted Villa Real city status in 1420, it became Ciudad Real (“Royal City”). Almagro was still the dominant city in the area despite having celebrated Cortes once, and it probably did not have more than 2000 inhabitants at the time.

As a result of the unification of the Iberian kingdoms under the Catholic Monarchy in 1691, Ciudad Real became the capital of the province of La Mancha [es]. This fact facilitated its economic development, as shown by the construction of several important buildings. A large number of these buildings were destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. During the Peninsular War, French troops defeated the Spanish army and occupied the town, using the local hospital as their headquarters and barracks.

In the mid-nineteenth century, Almagro and Manzanares, with a similar population, challenged Ciudad Real’s status as provincial capital following the creation of the province of Ciudad Real in 1833. Initiatives aimed at moving the provincial capital from Ciudad Real failed, however.

There was great destruction in the center during the Spanish civil war.