Alarcón

Alarcón sits on a rocky promontory almost entirely encircled by the Río Júcar. The site has Iberian and Roman roots, but its name comes from Arabic — الاركون, meaning "the fortress" — reflecting the period when Arab builders raised the first castle here. The town's history has always been shaped by that castle and by its role as a fortified stronghold, which made it the head of one of the regions of the old Señorío de Villena.

Beyond the castle, the town holds a range of religious buildings — the churches of Santo Domingo de Silos, San Juan Bautista, Santa Trinidad, and Santa María, plus the hermitage of Santa María de la Orden — as well as civil monuments including the Ayuntamiento, the Casa de Villena, and the Palacio de los Castañeda. The entire town was declared a historic-artistic ensemble, with the boundary formally approved on 3 July 1981. On 3 December 1981, the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla-La Mancha was approved inside the church of Santa María.

In 1994, painter Jesús Mateo began covering the interior of the former church of San Juan Bautista with murals, a project completed in 2002. UNESCO recognised the work in 1997 for its artistic significance, and it has drawn visitors ever since.

The castle is the dominant monument. Built on a promontory inside a meander of the Júcar — making it effectively surrounded by water on three sides — it was originally Muslim-built and taken by King Alfonso VIII in 1184. Within these walls the Infante Don Juan Manuel, Prince of Villena, wrote his celebrated work *El Conde Lucanor*. The keep's great tower of homage dates from around 1460 and was the work of Juan Pacheco. After years of abandonment, the castle was expropriated on 12 October 1963 and later restored by Turespaña, opening as a parador in 1966. Today it can be visited through guided tours led by local guides.

The church of San Juan Bautista is late Romanesque in origin, retaining its original semicircular apse and a south portal with three colonnettes on each jamb supporting pointed archivolts in a proto-Gothic style. Its square tower and raised nave walls were added in a Renaissance phase; a barrel vault with transverse arches followed in the Baroque period. The building now serves as an exhibition hall and auditorium, and was declared a cultural asset of interest on 19 February 1992. It also houses Jesús Mateo's mural cycle, under UNESCO patronage since 1997, which draws more than 40,000 visitors a year.

The church of Santa María has a single nave, a portal in the Herreran style by Juan de Herrera, and a tower surviving from an earlier Romanesque building. Santo Domingo de Silos has two naves from different centuries, pointed arches, a Renaissance altar, and a Plateresque portal bearing the coats of arms of the Marquis of Villena and Bishop Diego Ramírez de Villaescusa; its tower rises above the Arco de la Villa. The church of Santa Trinidad was built in Plateresque style in the early sixteenth century, with a Gothic tracery vault; its portal, from the mid-sixteenth century, is attributed to Esteban Jamete de Orleans, who also likely made the altarpiece depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin.