By Felipe Lopez

On 24 April, a small group of SCBJC members traveled to Almansa, which is located in the Autonomous Region of Castilla-La Mancha. Almansa is about one and onehalf hour drive from Torrevieja on A31, direction of Albacete-Madrid.

Almansa has a rich history. We concentrated on the role that Almansa played during the War of Spanish Succession 1701-1715. Many historians conclude that the battle that took place in the surroundings of Almansa on 25 April 1707 was the decisive factor in retaining the Bourbon heritage in the Spanish Crown, as opposed to the Hapsburg line. Truly an extensive historical background that would fill pages, but now we know a little more about this aspect of Spanish History. One cannot imagine how much of British history in also involved in this War until you start doing research. Click This Link to visit an excellent site that has a good narration of this event and the English involvement.

We visited the Centre of Interpretation and Museum in town, and the Director of the Museum, Don Herminio Gomez, personally walked us through the center and narrated in great English, the historical background leading to the Battle. From there, we visited the Town Hall where a wall-sized mural painting, depicting many small details of the battle, is located. After a magnificent lunch, savoring several different Castilla-La Mancha specialties, we traveled to one of the battlefield points and we were able to observe the extensive 12 miles by 6 miles wide battle ground. Senor Gomez accompanied us and shared with us the tactical aspects of the battle.

We returned to Torrevieja by early evening with our heads full of history details that, in many ways, have encouraged some of us to do more research on this piece of history.

Enclosed are a few pictures to help better visualizing our visit to Almansa. Who knows, maybe others may get interested and would want to visit, and then we can make another trip in the future.

Click This Link for the Almansa Interpretation Centre and Museum. Scroll down and click on Folleto Museo Ingles (pdf). A very nice concise history as well as a view of the different parts of the museum.

Click HERE to view the pictures in the Gallery.