Parador de Almagro

The Parador de Almagro is one of the most atmospheric places to stay in southern Castile, and it's worth visiting even if you're not a guest. The former Franciscan convent has 16 small courtyards, Renaissance arcades, and a church interior now converted to the hotel's public rooms. The building has been beautifully restored without losing its monastic character: stone flags, cool corridors, terracotta pots in the cloisters.

If you're going to stay anywhere in La Mancha on a night trip from Madrid, this is the place. Rooms are large, the setting is extraordinary, and the hotel restaurant serves reliable Castilian food — particularly strong on game and locally produced manchego and wines from the Campo de Calatrava appellation.

things to do sight architecture
A story
The convent that became the Parador de Almagro was founded by the Knights of Calatrava in the 16th century and served as a Franciscan friary for 300 years. When the Spanish government dissolved the religious orders in 1836, the building was confiscated. It sat largely unused until the Parador chain converted it in the 1970s — one of the more successful reinventions of ecclesiastical property in Castile-La Mancha.