What you can see on the Guadamur webcam
The camera looks north-west across tiled roofs, a palm tree and a pair of cypresses. On the right rise the castle walls and keep, their turrets crowned with battlements; on the far left, among trees, is the chapel of the Natividad. Both are labelled on the picture, and the wide sky above shows the weather coming over the plain.
Guadamur castle above the village rooftops
This live camera belongs to meteoguadamur.es, a private weather website devoted to the village, and looks north-west from a rooftop in Guadamur. In front are the tiled roofs of neighbouring houses, a palm and two tall cypresses; on the right the castle rises above the trees, its square keep and round corner turrets crowned with battlements, and on the far left stands the small chapel of the Natividad. Both monuments are named on the picture.
The castle is built of warm, brownish stone that glows in the afternoon sun. Above it, a wide band of sky shows the weather over the plain of Toledo: clear blue on most summer days, low cloud and rain when a front comes through, or the thin mist of a winter morning.
The castle and the crowns of the Visigoths
The castle was built in two main phases, around 1470 and around 1520, for the Ayala family, Counts of Fuensalida, to guard a district that was burnt and plundered several times between 1446 and 1521. It kept its military role until the 18th century, when the counts moved to their palace in Toledo. Guadamur is also known for an older treasure: between 1858 and 1861 an orchard called Guarrazar, in the village's lands, gave up the Treasure of Guarrazar, a hoard of gold votive crowns and crosses offered by the Visigothic kings in the 7th century. The finest of them, the crown of King Recceswinth, is now in the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, and other pieces went to the Musée de Cluny in Paris.
When to watch Guadamur
Spain is one hour ahead of the UK and Ireland. The camera faces north-west, so the castle walls catch the sun from late morning to mid-afternoon, and on summer evenings the sun goes down ahead of the lens. Summers on the plain are long, hot and dry; winter brings clear, frosty mornings and, at times, fog along the Tagus valley.
Around Guadamur
Toledo, the old imperial city on its rock above the Tagus and a World Heritage Site, is a short drive away, with its cathedral, its synagogues and the paintings of El Greco. To the south, the wooded ranges of the Montes de Toledo rise behind the village.
Getting to Guadamur
Madrid-Barajas airport, with many flights from the UK and Ireland, is about 55 miles (89 km) from Guadamur as the crow flies. High-speed trains run from Madrid to Toledo in about half an hour, and the village is a short drive further on, along country roads through fields of cereals and olive groves.
