Top 20 Natural Monuments around Almagro

It is located next to the town centre of Pozuelo de Calatrava. It is popularly known as the unexpected lagoon. If you pass by, it is a unique opportunity to enjoy the flora and fauna of the saltiest lagoon in the area.

Right at the entrance, the Tablas de Calatrava Naturalist Association, in collaboration with the Carrión de Calatrava Town Hall, completed in 2020 the project to assemble a plaster oven in the traditional way of this town. Located in the House of Juan Merino, mayor of Praos from 1910 to 1914, it has been carried out following all the steps; From the extraction of the gypsum stones from the soil to its construction, although it has not been fired, it has been left assembled for the contemplation of visitors to the Baño de los Hervideros - next to which it is located -, as a tribute to the numerous families of plasterers who worked in our town for centuries in this hard trade.

Small lagoon that is very close to the center and what's more, the path that goes around it is quiet and pleasant close to the center.

The so-called “hotbeds” are one of the most common phenomena in the Calatrava region, as a consequence of its intense volcanic activity. A unique spectacle that, together with sour springs, maares, wells, and jets or sinas, are part of the history of the region and that the Association for the Development of Campo de Calatrava tries to preserve and make known outside its borders.

Within the Campo de Calatrava region, this municipality attracts the visitor's attention because it is close to two salty lagoons of volcanic origin, Argamasilla and Inesperada; formerly used as medicinal waters. Like other thermal springs where the Infante Don Carlos ordered the construction of the Baños de Fuensanta. In addition to its natural assets, the religious ones are important, in the form of a church and a sanctuary that we must not miss. Its 17th century church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist was declared a B.I.C. in 1989. Its nave is covered by a barrel vault and has a polygonal apse and two doorways under porticoes, one of them with Tiara Papal. It is one of the few churches that preserves its three original altarpieces from the 18th century, the most important being that of the High Altar made of walnut wood without polychrome and with allegories of the Trinity. In the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de los Santos we can also admire a beautiful altarpiece in Churrigueresque forms. The sanctuary is on the outskirts of the town and was built on an old Arab fortress. It has a single nave in which we will see wall paintings and a beautiful Mudejar coffered ceiling.

Pozuelo de Calatrava is a rustic town of medieval origin located in the historic region of Campo de Calatrava, on the edge of one of the most interesting volcanic lagoons in the territory: La Inesperada or Laguna del Prado, where you can spot various waterfowl.

Within the Campo de Calatrava region, this municipality attracts the visitor's attention because it is close to two salty lagoons of volcanic origin, Argamasilla and Inesperada; formerly used as medicinal waters. Like other thermal springs where the Infante Don Carlos ordered the construction of the Baños de Fuensanta. In addition to its natural assets, the religious ones are important, in the form of a church and a sanctuary that we must not miss. Its 17th century church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist was declared a B.I.C. in 1989. Its nave is covered by a barrel vault and has a polygonal apse and two doorways under porticoes, one of them with Tiara Papal. It is one of the few churches that preserves its three original altarpieces from the 18th century, the most important being that of the High Altar made of walnut wood without polychrome and with allegories of the Trinity. In the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de los Santos we can also admire a beautiful altarpiece in Churrigueresque forms. The sanctuary is on the outskirts of the town and was built on an old Arab fortress. It has a single nave in which we will see wall paintings and a beautiful Mudejar coffered ceiling.

This space must have been very rich in biodiversity and resources (flowers, fruits, medicinal remedies, game and honey) as testimonies from the 17th century confirm this, and since then it was already a place of recreation for the inhabitants of the capital, where in addition the presence of water springs that gave irrigation to fruit trees is deduced, today already difficult to imagine. In the 20th century, La Atalaya underwent most of the natural alterations that it presents today; private use for hunting in the central and eastern area, and public use in the western part have been the main land uses of the mountain until 2019, when the Ciudad Real City Council bought the almost 500 hectares of private land. Until then, the public part, declared a Forest Park in 1980, has been used as a green space, for recreation, leisure and environmental education.