Albacete is a Spanish city located in the region of Castilla-La Mancha between Madrid and the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, Albacete dates to the Moorish era on the Iberian Peninsula, and the Arabic name for the city was Al-Basīṭ, from which the Spanish Albacete comes. Later, the city became Spanish after the Christian reconquest, and Albacete obtained the status of a proper city with the designation as a villa in 1375. A hundred years later, the Catholic monarchs rewarded the city, which thus obtained permission to hold a market every week. This was supplemented in 1710 with the permission for an annual festival. Around 1800, 10,000 people lived in Albacete, and that number has multiplied since then.

In the center of Albacete you can see the Catedral de San Juan, the city’s main church. It was built from 1515, and several renovations have been carried out over the years. The church became a bishop’s seat in 1949 and has a beautiful interior. Next to the cathedral, you can visit the Museo Municipal de la Cuchillería de Albacete, which is a cutlery museum housed in the Casa del Hortelano, a particularly beautiful modernist house from 1912. At the museum you can see historical cutlery, old knives and much else. Around the same square as the museum, you can see Albacete’s town hall, which was designed in a modern style. Albacete’s former town hall was built as a beautiful mansion in 1902, and it can be seen in the Plaza del Altozana, one of the city’s most beautiful squares. Today, the city’s art museum is in the historic town hall building.

From Plaza del Altozana you can walk along the elegant street Calle Marqués de Molins, where there are many beautiful houses from around 1900. On one side is the modernist arcade Pasaje de Lodares from 1925, which was designed by the architect Buenaventura Ferrando Castells from Valencia. From the 19th century, the beautiful mansion Diputacion Provincial from 1880 stands as a good example of public buildings of the time. Close to the mansion you can see the Teatro Circo, which was built in 1887 and which has since been expanded in modern architecture surrounding the old building. From earlier times, you can e.g. see the Posada del Rosario house from the 16th century, which is a period house with inspiration from the Gothic, Renaissance and the regional Mudejar style.

A little to the south, you can take a walk in the beautiful park, Parque Abelardo Sánchez, where there are wide avenues, several monuments, a music pavilion and the Museo de Albacete, which is a historical museum with archaeological finds from the area. In the western part of the city, you can see some other sights and large structures like the city’s beautiful bullring, which was completed as the city’s third in 1917. It is also in this quarter that Albacete’s festival square is located. Every year a large festival is held in the city, and the tradition goes back to the 13th century. The permanent festival buildings were erected in 1783 and form a traditional market square with a natural center with surrounding activities.