What you can see on the Calzada de Calatrava webcam
From the roof terrace of the town hall, the camera looks south-east across the Plaza de España: the pale paving with large circles set into it, café terraces in front of an ochre block of flats, and a tree-lined street running off to the right between houses with balconies, with low hills on the horizon. It is a still image, not a video: the refresh button brings the latest one, and the time-lapse shows how the square fills and empties over the day.
The Plaza de España of Calzada de Calatrava from the town hall
The town council's camera is on the roof terrace of the town hall and looks south-east across the Plaza de España through a wide-angle lens. In the paving are the large circles that stand for the coins of Las Caras, the coin-tossing game of Good Friday, one of them with the red cross of the Order of Calatrava. Behind are the café terraces with their umbrellas and an ochre block of flats with balconies; on the right, a street lined with young trees runs away between houses towards the hills.
It is a still image with the date and time printed in the corner, handy for seeing whether the terraces are busy, the square is wet or the sun is out. The refresh button brings the latest picture.
The square of Las Caras
The square in its present form dates from 2006. The five circles in its paving stand for the coins of Las Caras, a game of tossing coins played in the square on Good Friday, the only game of its kind held in Castile-La Mancha, and one of them carries the red cross of the Order of Calatrava. The order built its headquarters on a hilltop about 4½ miles (7 km) south-west of the town between 1213 and 1217, after the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa: the castle-convent of Calatrava la Nueva, which faces the ruined castle of Salvatierra across a valley. Holy Week in Calzada is part of the Ruta de la Pasión Calatrava, a festival of national tourist interest.
When to watch Calzada de Calatrava
Spain is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The camera faces south-east, so in the morning it looks towards the sun, and in the afternoon the light falls across the square from the right. La Mancha has very hot summers and cold winters with frosty mornings; the square is busiest in the evening, when the terraces fill, and on fiesta days.
Around Calzada de Calatrava
Calatrava la Nueva, a vast walled castle-convent with its own great church, on a cone-shaped hill about 936 m (3,070 ft) high, is the great sight of the district. On the edge of town, an enormous grain silo was painted in bright colours by the artist Okuda San Miguel in 2019, and a park opened by Almodóvar in 1990 bears his name. Almagro, with its 17th-century open-air theatre, the Corral de Comedias, is about 13 miles (21 km) to the north as the crow flies.
Getting to Calzada de Calatrava
High-speed trains from Madrid stop at Ciudad Real and Puertollano, each about 20 miles (30 to 35 km) from the town. Madrid-Barajas airport is about 120 miles (197 km) away as the crow flies.
