Villaflores

The land on which Villaflores stands once belonged to the municipality of Iriépal and passed through several aristocratic families — the Cárdenas, the Ibarra, and the Cortizos — before coming in 1882 into the hands of María Diega Desmaissières y Sevillano, Countess of Vega del Pozo and Duchess of Sevillano. The name Villaflores came from a historical designation the land had carried for centuries under Iriépal, and it eventually attached itself to the estate itself.

The countess commissioned architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco to build a working agricultural colony on the site. Reflecting her philanthropic outlook, the project went beyond basic farm buildings to include a school, a chapel, and eight workers' dwellings. Construction ran from 1886 to 1887, and the colony opened in 1887. The complex includes a main farmhouse, a large cylindrical dovecote, four residential buildings, two wells with water wheels, and a small chapel surrounded by a cemetery. All the buildings were constructed in limestone rubble masonry reinforced with exposed brick.

After the countess died, subsequent owners lost interest and the complex fell into slow decline. In summer 2008, plans were announced to rehabilitate the site and develop it into a residential area with an astronomy theme park, but the project stalled. Deterioration continued, and in February 2016 the clock tower and bell gable on the main façade collapsed. In early 2023, following a public tender, the Almería-based company Albaida Infraestructuras was awarded an urgent repair contract to halt further degradation.

Villaflores sits beside the Cañada Real Galiana drovers' road, the N-320, and the Madrid–Barcelona high-speed rail line. The surrounding area includes a natural landscape known as El Sotillo. In April 2015, the colony was formally declared a Site of Cultural Interest as a historic ensemble — recognition of its status as one of the most complete 19th-century agricultural colonies surviving in Castilla-La Mancha.