The Plaza Mayor is the heart of Ciudad Real — a long arcaded square ringed by café terraces and presided over by the neo-Gothic former town hall on one side. In the evening it fills up with families on the paseo, children running between the tables and groups gathering for a glass of beer or vermouth.
The square's chiming Reloj Carillón, mounted on the Casa del Arco, marks the hours with mechanical figures of Don Quixote, Sancho Panza and Cervantes himself. A cheerfully kitsch detail but unmistakably La Mancha.