Tembleque

The writer Juan Eslava Galán affirmed, in that work that I have already mentioned on some previous occasion, as a very subtle and complete guide to the thousand places to see in Spain, at least once in a lifetime, that in terms of Squares Older is concerned, it is absurd to argue about which is the most beautiful.

But he added, referring precisely to that of Tembleque, the Castilian-La Mancha town that I wish to invite you to know on this occasion, that its Main Square should figure, at least, among the top ten, if we speak of design, beauty and architecture.

And I assure you that he is not without reason, although I leave it to his always esteemed criteria, whether or not to share that opinion, since it is already known that in a matter of taste, no one definitely has the last word.

In fact, the origins of the Tembleque's Main Square date back to the 16th century and, unlike most squares that revalue the cultural, historical and artistic value of many Spanish towns, it is formed by the union, through a passage, of two squares Siamese, who answered to the elegant names of the Order and the Major.

The Mayor, because it was the most relevant place in the town, evidently and the Order, in memory of that old religious-military order, that of San Juan de Jerusalem, which in the distant times of the Reconquest was in charge of repopulating these new territories , which were progressively being taken from the Muslims.

Tembleque, to give you an idea of ​​its importance and location, is a town in La Mancha Toledo, some ninety kilometers from Madrid, whose station, both post and rail, was a mandatory stop for all those travelers who were heading towards Andalusia, so that they should not be surprised if it appears as such in numerous travel chronicles, such as that made by Francisco de Paula Mellado or by other travelers, of more illustrious birth, such as Baron Davilier, who had the fortune to spend the night in Tembleque accompanied by one of the best recording artists of the time, such as Gustavo Doré.

Like the vast majority of La Mancha towns, also in the old town of Tembleque, the lime makes the little houses look like, metaphorically speaking, an urban wash lying in the hot summer sun and among them, it is not difficult to find those buildings that made time, such as the casino -which in its origins, far from being the places of unbridled gambling that they are today, were the closest thing to a social center where the personalities of the time met and where numerous literary gatherings were formed that would be the origin of generations of writers who magnified Spanish Literature with their works - and some old post, now converted into a restoration place, on whose façade you can still feel the nostalgia of times and golden ages, especially if in this one, even if it is responding to the claim of a well-known beer brand –Heineken- you have the opportunity to see that impossible love story reflected in the faces of Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, immortalized in a film that still, after the years and when I have the opportunity to see it again, I assure you that it gives me the hairs on my body like spikes: 'Casablanca'.

The most notable religious buildings in Tembleque are its imposing church of Gothic origins and remodeled in the 18th century, dedicated to the figure of Our Lady of the Assumption and the hermitage of Vera Cruz, a work from the 18th century and converted into a Municipal Library in the actuality.

This hermitage of Vera Cruz responds, due to its octagonal plan, to a type of hermitages and chapels that were very famous in their time - to give them some similar examples, it could be compared with those of Almazán, in Soria or that of Briones, in La Rioja Alta- which housed either a fragment of the Holy Cross, as this seems to be the case, or the figure of a Virgin or of a Christ with a reputation for being very miracle workers, the aforementioned octagonal-shaped plant being a symbolic reminder from the rotunda of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

Both church and hermitage are on either side of a Main Square, simply spectacular, both in its design of arcades, where granite and Solomonic columns serve as atlantes supporting the various floors of an architecture where the wooden framework that gives it stands out. a fantastic aspect to its galleries and terraces and which is, in addition, the nerve center of the town and by default, the place where the visitor will find enough hospitality establishments, where they can remedy their desire to savor Castilian-La Mancha cuisine and that wine so particular, that it usually carries the Valdepeñas designation of origin.

Apart and some two hundred meters away from the town center, although unfortunately in ruins, it is also worth spending a few minutes contemplating the Palace of the Towers, an imposing Renaissance work, ordered to be built in 1753 by one of the illustrious sons of Tembleque, D. Antonio Fernández Alejo, who invested in her the immense fortune, apparently, obtained in the Americas.

I hope, my dear friends, that this little journey through the tradition and manners of a beautiful Castilian-La Mancha town, such as Tembleque, has been to your liking and, most importantly, has left you with the desire to get to know it personally someday, being carried away by its sublime charm.

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