The province of Ciudad Real () is a

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

in the southwestern part of the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

of Castile-La Mancha,

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is bordered by the provinces of Cuenca,

Albacete Albacete ( , , ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the area around the city is known as Los Llan ...

, Jaén, Córdoba,

Badajoz Badajoz is the capital of the Province of Badajoz in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain. It is situated close to the Portugal, Portuguese Portugal–Spain border, border, on the left bank of the river ...

, and Toledo. It is partly located in the old

natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point of view, the naturally occurring flora and ...

La Mancha La Mancha () is a natural region, natural and historical region in the provinces of Spain, Spanish provinces of province of Albacete, Albacete, province of Cuenca, Cuenca, province of Ciudad Real, Ciudad Real and province of Toledo, Toledo. It ...

. Its capital is

Ciudad Real Ciudad Real (, ) is a municipality of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha, capital of the province of Ciudad Real. It is the 5th most populated municipality in the region. It was founded as Villa Real in 1255 as a ro ...

. It is the third largest province by area in all of

, after Cáceres and Badajoz. The historic

comarca A ''comarca'' (, , , ) is a traditional region or local administrative division found in Portugal, Spain, and some of their former colonies, like Brazil, Nicaragua, and Panama. The term is derived from the term ''marca'', meaning a "march, mark ...

Campo de Calatrava Campo de Calatrava is a comarca in the province of Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. Ciudad Real, the provincial capital, belongs to the Campo de Calatrava. A ''Denominación de Origen'' for olive oil takes its name from the comarca. There ...

is located in the center of the province.

History

Ciudad Real was one of the 49 provinces in which Spain was divided in the territorial reorganization of 1833, taking its name from its largest city and capital. Its limits corresponded more or less to the historical province of La Mancha, which was part of the kingdom of Toledo. The Spanish government created the

of Castilla-La Mancha on 15 November 1978, as one of several autonomous regions. The new, hyphenated name was chosen to join the historic Castilla region, which extended beyond the new autonomous region, and that of the smaller historic province of

. Initially a "pre-autonomous" region, the reorganization proposal finally took effect one week after the Statute of Autonomy of Castilla–La Mancha was approved on 10 August 1982. Under this new arrangement, Castilla-La Mancha was subdivided into five provinces,

, Ciudad Real, Cuenca,

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, and Toledo, each named after its largest town and capital city.

Geography

The province of Ciudad Real is located in central Spain and is the third largest province in the country with an area of . To the north lies the Province of Toledo, to the northeast the Province of Cuenca, to the east the Province of Albacete, to the south lie the Provinces of Córdoba and Jaén, and to the west the

Province of Badajoz The province of Badajoz ( ; ) is a province of western Spain located in the autonomous community of Extremadura. It was formed in 1833. It is bordered by the provinces of Cáceres in the north, Toledo, Ciudad Real in the east, Córdoba in ...

. To the northwest of the province is a separate area, the

exclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is s ...

of Anchuras, which is sandwiched between the

and the

Province of Toledo Toledo () is a Province (Spain), province of central Spain, in the western part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid Province, Madrid, Cuenca Province (Spai ...

. The provincial capital is

. Part of the province is part of the plateau of

, an elevated but fertile area averaging above sea level, the highest elevation being in the comarca of Campo de Montiel at . The main river, crossing the province from east to west, is the

Guadiana The Guadiana River ( , , , ) is an international river defining a long stretch of the Portugal-Spain border, separating Extremadura and Andalusia (Spain) from Alentejo and Algarve (Portugal). The river's basin extends from la Mancha and the e ...

, and its right bank tributary, the Cigüela. Most of the province is an arid plain, cool in summer and very cold in winter with wide daily fluctuations. The area is agricultural, with wheat, barley, oats, sugar beet, grapes and olives being grown. Cattle are raised here and there are large flocks of sheep. In the valleys formed by the upper reaches of the Guadiana and Cigüela is a wetland area called La Mancha Húmeda. The lagoons and marshes have a resident population of wetland birds and are visited by migrating wildfowl in autumn and spring. The largest towns in the province are

, with a population of 74,960 at the 2014 census,

Puertollano Puertollano () is a municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain located in the province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha. The city has a population of 45,539 (2022). Contrasting to the largely rural character of the region, Puertollano stands o ...

with 50,608, Tomelloso with 38,080,

Alcázar de San Juan Alcázar de San Juan is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain located in the province of Ciudad Real, autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha. It lies on the plain of La Mancha. From the 13t ...

with 31,650, and Valdepeñas with 30,705. Other larger municipalities with over ten thousand inhabitants are Manzanares, Daimiel,

La Solana La Solana is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. It has a population of 15,340. It has a very arid climate. It is located in a zone of Spain that produces large quantities of wine and olive oil. ...

, Miguelturra, Campo de Criptana, Socuéllamos, Bolaños de Calatrava and Villarrubia de los Ojos. The Tablas de Daimiel National Park is located in the province of Ciudad Real. It is a wetland area on the La Mancha plain, an otherwise mainly arid region. It has an area of about 2,000 hectares and is the smallest of Spain's fifteen national parks. It is being expanded to include some of the neighbouring

dryland farming Drylands are defined by a scarcity of water. Drylands are zones where precipitation is balanced by evaporation from surfaces and by transpiration by plants (evapotranspiration). The United Nations Environment Program defines drylands as tropical ...

areas. The Cabañeros National Park is shared with the neighbouring

. It has an area of and lies between the Estena and Bullaque rivers, extending into the Chorito and Miraflores mountain ranges. It contains remnants of the Iberian Mediterranean forest which used to clothe this part of Spain. In the centre of the province is the

, the geology of which is volcanic. The Campo de Calatrava Volcanic Field covers an area of and has more than three hundred individual structures. It is composed of pyroclastic cones,

lava dome In volcanology, a lava dome is a circular, mound-shaped protrusion resulting from the slow extrusion of viscous lava from a volcano. Dome-building eruptions are common, particularly in convergent plate boundary settings. Around 6% of eruptions ...

s and

maar A maar is a broad, low-relief volcanic crater caused by a phreatomagmatic eruption (an explosion which occurs when groundwater comes into contact with hot lava or magma). A maar characteristically fills with water to form a relatively shallow ...

s, and rises to . The last known eruption was around 3,600 BC.

Population development

The historical population is given in the following chart: Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.9) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.7) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) ImageSize = width:650 height:auto barincrement:30 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:600 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = late ScaleMajor = gridcolor:darkgrey increment:100 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:50 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo PlotData= color:skyblue width:20 shift:(-50,-5) fontsize:M anchor:till bar:1877 from:0 till:255 text:254,722 bar:1887 from:0 till:287 text:287,142 bar:1900 from:0 till:319 text:318,991 bar:1910 from:0 till:376 text:375,632 bar:1920 from:0 till:428 text:428,194 bar:1930 from:0 till:491 text:491,201 bar:1940 from:0 till:538 text:537,549 bar:1950 from:0 till:573 text:572,589 bar:1960 from:0 till:589 text:589,365 bar:1970 from:0 till:513 text:512,821 bar:1980 from:0 till:475 text:475,129 bar:1990 from:0 till:475 text:475,435 bar:2000 from:0 till:479 text:478,957 bar:2010 from:0 till:527 text:526,628 bar:2020 from:0 till:495 text:495,045 TextData= pos:(35,20) fontsize:M text:"Source: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE"

Government and administration

Communications

The province has good communications with other parts of Spain and is on the main route between Toledo and Andalusia. The A-4 route passes from north to south between Puerto Lápice and Almuradiel on the way from Madrid to Andalusia. The capital,

, and other locations are linked to this road by the A-43 and A-41, and the Autovía de los Viñedos motorway passes through the northeastern part of the province. Railway communications are via the

Madrid–Seville high-speed rail line The Madrid–Sevilla high-speed line (NAFA or ''Nuevo Acceso Ferroviario a Andalucía'') is a Spanish railway line for high-speed traffic between Madrid and Seville. The first Spanish high-speed rail connection has been in use since 21 April 1 ...

which has stations in the towns of Ciudad Real and Puertollano. Air travel was enabled by the opening in 2008 of the Ciudad Real Central Airport, which started to have international flights in June 2010. However, the link to the high-speed railway line was never built and the airport had financial difficulties and went into administration in October of the same year. In September 2015, it was reported that a new owner had purchased the airport.

References