Alcaraz

Human presence around Alcaraz goes back to the Neolithic: cave paintings survive near the confluence of the Mesta and Escorial rivers, about 3 km from the modern town. On a hilltop nearby stand the unexcavated ruins of what may be the Iberian city of Urcesa. The Romans left a stone bridge, the Puente del Canto, and a road running from ancient Mentesa Oretana toward what is known as Alcaraz Viejo, where remains of an earlier settlement have been heavily looted and little studied.

Some pieces from that site are held in the Archaeological Museum of Albacete. The town's name likely comes from the Arabic for "sierra of the cherry trees," referring to the sierra itself rather than the other way round. Construction of the present town appears to have begun under the Caliphate.

In May 1213, the Castilian king Alfonso VIII took the fortress from its governor Aben Hamet, following the Christian victory at Las Navas de Tolosa the previous year. The town was granted a charter based on the Fuero de Cuenca, and later Alfonso X issued a new charter in 1256 strengthening royal authority over the town council. A notable diplomatic milestone followed: the Treaty of Alcaraz of 1243, by which the emir of Murcia accepted Castilian troops into his principal castles.

Alcaraz was declared a historic-artistic monument in 1945. Its focal point is the Plaza Mayor, an irregular rectangle lined on three sides by Renaissance arcades — the lonjas — whose uniform Italian style makes it exceptional. The square brings together the Church of the Holy Trinity, the Torre del Tardón (clock tower), the Lonja de Santo Domingo, the Lonja de la Regatería, and the town hall building.

The Trinity church, Gothic and Renaissance in style, dates from the 15th and 16th centuries and is the sole survivor of what were once twelve parish churches. Inside are Gothic sculptures, 16th-century panels, and Burgundian, Neapolitan, and Salzillo-school imagery. Chapels added after a Lisbon-epicentre earthquake destroyed part of the building include two by Andrés de Vandelvira.

The church also has a Renaissance cloister that mirrors the arcade rhythm of the plaza. The Lonja de Santo Domingo, styled on the Italian cinquecento loggia, retains a large shield of Philip II above its central arch. On the Calle Mayor, the Plateresque doorway known as the Portada del Alhorí — a rounded arch flanked by carved columns — is considered the town's finest individual monument and is also the work of Vandelvira; it now leads to the tourist office.

The castle ruins and a ruined aqueduct complete the principal monuments of the historic centre.